


Don't Say a Word

by Blossomonatree



Category: Hunger Games (2012), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dark Katniss Everdeen, F/M, Janitor Peeta, Mental Hospital, Mystery, References to Suicide, Romance, Sexual Content, Suicidal Katniss, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2017-12-06 16:12:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 46,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blossomonatree/pseuds/Blossomonatree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It seemed like the time had stopped. There was no race against time to save his sister. There were no doctors or hospitals. There was only Him and Her. Silver and blue, and that's the way he wished it would always be AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So I'm not exactly new to fanfiction. I've written other stories for other fandoms in the past. However due to a very busy schedule and lack of motivation, I stopped writing my works in progress. This story was originally written for the High School Musical Fandom. However, for quite some time now, I've been thinking of remaking it into a Hunger Games fic. Some of the plot points will remain the same, however I plan to edit some of them in the future.
> 
> This story is based on the 2001 movie/1991 novel of the same name. Some of the plot points will remain the same while others will be edited to fit the story.
> 
> WARNING: There is a dark mention of suicide so please read at your own risk.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the charcters, unless otherwise noted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Prologue

She saw them again today. This time, it was after school. They didn't do anything except watch her from a black four-door Sedan parked right outside the student parking lot. The windows were tinted and even though she couldn't see them, she knew they were there, watching, waiting for her to do something.

This was the third time she saw them this week. It was five o'clock and even though school had ended more than two hours ago, she stayed in the library to study for her math test. The parking lot seemed so empty, a mirrored image of her life. Its not that she liked being alone. She used to be happy. She used to laugh. She used to sing—that is, before IT happened.

She was now facing her bathroom mirror after making sure all the windows and the curtains in the house were closed. Her so-called 'mom' had asked her why she was closing them. All she had said was that it was almost nighttime and that it was best to close them now instead of later. Her 'mom'—after giving her an incredulous look—just nodded her head and went back to cooking dinner.

The water was running in the bathtub as she stared at her dark sullen eyes. Her eyes that were once a nice piercing silver, so full of life, now seemed dead, rusted over with dread and sorrow. She was thinner now, and lost almost all of her color from her face. Her hair, which was once long and held dark luscious curls, now seemed damp and stringy.

She walked out of her bathroom and walked towards the window in her room. She slowly opened a small crack of her curtain and looked out. They were still there. 'Probably waiting for me to go to bed so they can report back to HIM.' she thought. She quickly closed the curtain and grabbed a pair of sharp scissors that she kept in her desk drawer. She walked back into the bathroom and shut the door.

The tub was half full now. She estimated that it would over flow in about ten minutes or so. She sighed and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. She looked down at the scissors she held in her hands, slowly observing the sharpness of the blades as she slowly kept opening and closing them. Tears started to form in her eyes. She had to do this. She had no choice. If she didn't, people would just keep getting hurt. Her heart felt heavy and started pounding in her ears. Looking back towards the bathtub she thought, 'Just a few more minutes and it'll all be over.'

As she saw the water slowly start to rise, she suddenly thought about her school, Panem High School, which was tucked away in a small suburb of Fresno, California. She had just been there for no more than three months, not long enough to form any emotional connections with anyone at all.

She wished that she could make friends easily, but she knew better. She knew that if she made at least one friend, they would ask questions about her past life, questions that would bring back memories she wanted to keep tucked inside her dangerous mind. There was also that huge risk of THEM finding out and hurting the ones close to her. So she decided to isolate herself to the point where no one would even know who she was at graduation—if she ended up graduating from that school like she was originally promised.

'Good,' she thought, 'at least no one will notice.'

The tub was overflowing now. She slowly stood from her spot on the tub and walked towards the medicine cabinet right above the sink. She opened the small cabinet and took out a half empty bottle of pills and an empty cup that she quickly filled with water. She opened the bottle and spilled all of its contents on her palm. She stared at the small round pills for a moment before one by one she swallowed them. It only took a minute before the cup fell from her grasp, shattering on the ground. She quickly grabbed the sharp scissors before she slowly began to stumble backwards towards the overflowing bathtub.

Feeling her eyes getting heavier, she opened the scissors. 'Almost done.' she thought. She grabbed one of the sharp blades and brought it close to the pale skin of her thin and breakable wrist. A faint cry of pain escaped her mouth. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was that in just a few minutes, she would be gone, and no one would ever bother her again. She looked down as her arms started to drip with blood. The bloody hand grabbed the blade and slowly crisscrossed her other wrist. Tears began to form in her eyes as she tried to open them once more. She suddenly felt so empty and tired. All the feelings in both of her scrawny legs were gone. She found that she could no longer hold her balance and fell back into the tub. Water rapidly began to fill her lungs as she felt the back of her head touch the bottom of the tub.

'This is it.' she thought. 'It's almost over. All my pain will finally be over.'

She tried to open her eyes once more. Her vision was blurred as she saw the mint colored ceiling above her. Her life would now be over. Nothing could get to her now. The memories, the pain, nothing could reach her, not even HIM. She looked up at the light shining from the light bulb above her before her world suddenly became black.


	2. Notice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the charcters, unless otherwise noted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

"Dude, did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"About that Everdeen girl?"

"What about her?"

"She tried to kill herself."

Peeta looked up at his best friend of eleven years—his blue eyes widening in shock as his dark haired friend took a bite off of his pizza as if he just finished telling his friend the scores to last night's football game.

"You're kidding right?" he asked.

Gale finished chewing his food before answering his blonde friend.

"Why would I kid about something like that?" he asked, wiping sauce from his mouth with the back of his hand.

Peeta sighed as he looked away from his friend. He was right. Although Gale was known to be a bit of a class clown, there's no way he would joke about something as serious as death. Gale's father died when they were both in middle school, leaving just him and his mom. His mom worked two jobs in order to support the two of them. Gale even had to pick up some odd jobs every now and then when things got tough. The only way that Gale would ever have a chance of getting out of Fresno was by earning a football scholarship to an out of state college.

Even though his friend was known for making crude jokes, sometimes at his expense, Peeta knew that it was all a façade to hide the pain that the death of his father left him with.

"Wow," was all Peeta could think of to say as he looked down at his own food.

"Why do you look so shocked?" asked Gale as he took another bite of his pizza, "It's not like you actually talked to her."

"How can you not be so shocked? I-mean a girl who up until this point, was a classmate of ours just took her life," said Peeta as he ran a hand through his golden curls, "and for the record, I actually have spoken to her before."

Gale stared at his friend with a doubtful look on his face.

"I asked her for a pencil once, which I gave back to her at the end of class," said Peeta with a triumphant look on his face.

"FYI, saying words like 'Can I borrow a pencil?' does not exactly qualify as a full conversation."

Peeta rolled his eyes, "Well I'm sorry for not having a five minute conversation with her." He gave a small sigh, "It's just shocking you know? I-mean one minute she's sitting behind us in class and the next minute she's dead."

"News flash, I said she tried to kill herself, not that she actually did do it."

"Oh," Peeta said dumbfounded, "still. How does someone like her wake up one morning and decide to end their life?"

"I don't know. All I know is that she was found in her bathroom passed out and bleeding to death," said Gale with a sigh, a clear indication that he didn't feel like talking about it anymore.

Peeta looked down at his own pizza, which suddenly seemed unappetizing to him.

"How do you know all of this anyway?" he asked after a small moment of silence.

"I heard Clove tell Glimmer in homeroom. Turns out Clove lives next door to Everdeen and saw the whole thing. I bet the whole school probably knows by now. You know how gossipy those two can be. Glimmer probably told Cashmere who probably told Madge who would have told Delly and, well, need I say more?"

Peeta rolled his eyes and gave a small laugh at his friends comment. It was true, the blonde was notorious for knowing everything about everyone and making sure everyone else knew everything about everyone as well. If only she knew why Katniss Everdeen had suddenly decided to try and kill herself. Then, maybe he wouldn't feel as guilty as he did now.

He knew that it was silly to feel this way. After all, Gale was right, he hardly knew the olive skinned girl with the dark braid and the silver eyes. He didn't know her favorite color or her favorite food or where she originally was from. He didn't know about what made her tick or what made her laugh. He didn't even know who her friends were or where she sat at lunch. He knew for a fact that she and Madge Undersee were lab partners in chemistry, mostly because Peeta was in the same class and he was bit bummed out that he was stuck with Flavius instead. Other than that he had no idea who she chose to spend the rest of her time with.

This thought lingered in his mind as he looked around the school cafeteria to see if any of the tables looked grief stricken. If there was, he thought, then maybe that's where Katniss sat. Her friends would definitely be sad and hurt that their friend tried to kill herself…wouldn't they?

However, the more he looked around, the more he realized that everyone was just going about their business as if nothing had happened. None of the tables looked like they were hurting. Everyone seemed to act as is it were any other day. Students were minding their own business. The athletes were having food competitions while the cheerleaders cheered them on, the nerds were too occupied with their books, the loners looked bored out of their minds, the stoners looked more stoned than ever, and the rich kids looked more self obsessed, if that was even possible.

Maybe…maybe no one knows. Maybe Gale's wrong and Delly hasn't told the whole school yet. Or maybe…maybe no one cared.

"Gale?" he said as more of a question than a statement.

His friend looked up as he licked some sauce off of his fingers, "What?"

Peeta looked around again, suddenly relieved that he and Gale were currently the only ones sitting at their own table, "If-if I tried to kill myself, do you think anyone would notice?"

Gale coughed as he almost chocked on his Gatorade. He suddenly looked up into his friends blue eyes, "Dude, of course people would notice. You're the football captain Peeta. You're easily the most popular guy in school. If something happened to you, Panem would declare a national Peeta Mellark day just to show how much they love you."

Peeta sighed again and picked at his pizza. Gale was right. He was the most popular guy in school. After all, he was captain of the varsity football team and considered by all to be a modern day Adonis. He was tall, practically towering over the entire Panem High population. The muscles on his body were well defined and stood out against the blue shirt he was wearing. His blonde locks fell right above his cyan eyes and created a sort of halo around his head. He was loved by every single person that had ovaries, and was worshipped by those who didn't. People noticed everything about him, which he sometimes found kind of creepy. I-mean do complete strangers randomly offer to throw your gum away for you just so you wouldn't get detention for sticking it under the desk, and thus not getting enough practice to win the big game? 'I think not.' thought Peeta.

"Why are you even asking me this?" asked Gale.

"I don't know." shrugged Peeta, "I guess the whole thought of suicide makes you wonder if anyone here cares about what happened to Katniss. I-mean look around. No one here seems to know about it and if they do then nobody seems to care. I guess it just made me wonder if people actually pay attention to other people but themselves."

Gale looked around the cafeteria. He gave a small sigh as he looked back at his best friend, "I guess your right. But then again, you never really did see her with anyone else. Maybe she was a like, a loner or something?"

"Maybe," said Peeta, "But still, it kind of sucks that someone like her has gone unnoticed for the past three months."

"Someone like her?" asked Gale, with an arched eyebrow.

Peeta suddenly felt his face get hot. Was he really that obvious?

He would be lying if he said he hadn't noticed her on more than one occasion. He'd be lying if he said he never noticed the way her face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl that looked more endearing than annoyed or intimidating. He'd be lying if he said he never noticed how she seemed to bite her bottom lip when she was nervous, or the way her braid never seemed to keep her hair away from her face. He'd be lying if he said he didn't notice the way she spoke with her eyes instead of her voice. He'd be lying if he said he didn't realize that the very moment he first saw Katniss Everdeen walk into Mrs. Sae's homeroom, he was a goner.

"All I meant was that it sucks that no one seems to care. I feel kind of bad," he said.

"Peeta, it's not your fault. You didn't even know the girl, like you said, you've only spoken to her once and that was just to ask her for a pencil. And besides, she's only been here for like, three months. I don't know about you, but newbie's don't really make great impacts on people, especially if all they do is scowl at people."

Peeta sighed again while Gale looked down at his uneaten slice of pizza, "Are you gonna eat that?" he asked.

Peea gave a small chuckle and shook his head. Gale took that as the signal to grab his friends plate and begin to chug down his food.

The bell suddenly rang, signaling the end of lunch. Peeta and Gale walked out of the cafeteria and headed for their lockers. Peeta opened his locker and groaned as he realized he had History with Mr. Cray next. He unwilling got his notebook and closed his locker. He said bye to Gale and headed towards his History class.

Once there, he went to his desk towards the center of the room and sat down. He laid his head on the desk and he waited for everyone to finish saying hi to him and sit down in their rightful places. Once the tardy bell rang, he looked towards the door. A feeling of disappointment hit him when he realized the olive skinned girl was not going to walk in. Around him, people were talking and some even tried to talk to him while they waited for Mr. Cray to finish writing something on the board. However, Peeta didn't really feel like talking much. Instead, he looked back to the empty desk at the corner of the room.

Gale was right. People would definitely notice if he went missing. Peeta was worshipped here. He had everything he wanted, popularity, money, and girls. But as he stared at the empty desk in the back of the room, he couldn't help but wonder why he suddenly felt so empty inside.


	3. A New Patient

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Game s or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise no ted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Dr. Annie Cresta was the best doctor in all of Fresno. She graduated at the top of her class in med school and was the first woman to publish a book about the human mind under the age of thirty-five. She had a PhD in just about anything you could imagine and had the awards to prove it. With her long auburn hair, piercing green eyes, and her perfect figure and Dr. Annie Cresta was indeed the epitome of brains and beauty. There was not one patient who she could not quickly diagnose and help treat. Her history with patients was extremely remarkable for not one of them was ever admitted back into the hospital. She often got 'Thank You' cards from them and was always extremely happy when they would tell her about how much she helped them change their lives.

However, as Dr. Cresta walked into the hospital on this cold December morning, a sudden feeling of doubt came over her. Maybe it was the cold weather, or maybe it was that meatloaf she had last night. She didn't know, but something inside her told her that today wouldn't be like any other day.

Whatever it was, she quickly pushed those thoughts aside as she headed towards the elevator and pushed the 'Up' button. Once inside the elevator, she selected the button with the number 12, the psychiatric ward.

When the elevator signaled that she was finally on the twelfth floor, she stepped out and headed towards the front desk.

"Good morning Effie." she said to the blonde behind the counter, while she grabbed the folders that were already waiting for her.

Effie Trinket had just begun working as the main receptionist on the twelfth floor almost 8 months before. She had blond hair that she often curled into small ringlets and wore way too much makeup for Annie's own taste.

"Good morning Dr. Cresta." replied the clerk with a smile on her face.

"Anything happen last night?"

"When doesn't anything happen?" said Effie with a roll of her eyes, "I swear, the residents down in the ER think that they can just send up as many people as they please. In my opinion, the only reason they send the patients up is just so they wouldn't have to deal with them anymore."

Annie chuckled at the clerk's remark. It was true, most of the time, when the residents didn't know what to do about a patient; they would send them up to the psychiatric ward to get evaluated. Most of the patients sent up were released within the next hour.

"I'll see you later Effie." Annie said as she began to walk away towards her office.

"Oh," said Effie, "Dr. Cresta, before I forget, Dr. Aurelius wants to see you before you start your morning rounds."

Annie nodded her head and began to walk towards her boss's office. However, just as she was about to knock, the door suddenly opened revealing the short balding man who had been looking for her.

"Dr. Aurelius," she said as the man gave her a small smile, "Effie said you wanted to see me?"

"Ah, yes, I did." said Dr. Aurelius, "Come, walk with me."

Annie tucked her folders under her arm as she began to walk down the hall with the shorter man. Dr. Aurelius had been her boss ever since she started her residency at the hospital. He recognized her talent from the moment he first met her and had since then, taken her under his wing.

"Annie, in all my years of working here in this hospital, I have never had quiet a talented Doctor as you," he began, "You have always exceeded everyone's expectations and have definitely proven yourself to be worthy of taking my position once I leave."

"Thank you sir, you of all people know how serious I take my job."

"Yes I do. You're the only other person who is just as dedicated, besides me of course," he chuckled, "But that's not what I want to speak to you about."

He stopped and gave her a folder he had been caring with him. She took the folder and started to go through its contents.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A seventeen-year-old girl came in last night with a lot of drugs in her system, water in her lungs, and sliced wrists." He responded, tucking his hands into his lab coat.

"Wow, sounds like she really wanted to die."

"Yes, it would seem. Luckily, the doctors downstairs were able to revive her and they sent her up here."

"Do we know why?" Annie asked, looking up from the contents of the folder.

"No. She left no note, no indication of what she wanted to do."

"What about her friends?"

"She doesn't have any. Her foster mom said she just moved here about three months ago."

"Foster mom?"

"She's in foster care. Her foster mom discovered her in the bottom of the bathtub bleeding and unconscious. She said she though something was wrong when she called the girl to dinner and she didn't respond. Said she went up the stairs and found her room empty. Then she noticed water coming from the bathroom and found her."

"It must feel horrible to know Social Services gave you a suicidal person to look after." Said Annie

"I bet it does."

"But sir, what does this have to do with me?"

"I want you to help her. She woke up about an hour ago. But she won't talk to anyone; she won't even look at anyone. All she does is sit on her bed and stare at the wall. It's like her mind has momentarily shut down." Said Dr. Aurelius as they began to walk further down the hall.

"She must be in shock.," said Annie, "She wanted to die so bad that she's shocked it didn't work. She's probably wondering what went wrong and if God's punishing her by making her live on."

"I certainly hope that that's what it is," he said as they suddenly stopped in front of a door with a small window, "She's in here."

Annie looked through the window and noticed a small frail, thin body with long, dark stringy hair.

"I'll do everything I can." She said.

"I know you will. You're all she has now."

Annie nodded her head in agreement as Dr. Aurelius turned to leave.

"Wait, Dr. Aurelius?" she asked.

Dr. Aurelius turned back to look at her.

"What's her name?"

"Katniss Everdeen."

***

"Hey Peeta, we're still on for tonight right?" asked Gale as he slipped on his shirt in the boys locker room. Football practice had ended half an hour ago and Peeta and his friends were getting ready to leave.

"What are you talking about?" asked the blue-eyed captain.

Gale, Thom, Darius, and a couple other guys from the team all turned to look at Peeta with shocked looks on their faces. Peeta, suddenly realizing that everyone was staring at him, reached behind his neck and softly scratched himself. Why was everyone staring at him?

"What?" he asked, "Do I have something on my face?"

"You're about to have my fist all over your face unless you remember what tonight is," said Gale as he took one step forward towards his best friend.

"Uh…" Peeta stuttered as he stared to back up, "it-it's not your birthday is it?"

"Great!" yelled Gale as he threw his arms in the air for dramatic effect, "How are we supposed to trash the Career's gym if our captain doesn't even remember?"

"Oh..." said Peeta as a sudden realization dawned on him. Of course, tonight was the night the Panem High Mockingjays were supposed tepee and completely trash the gym at Career Technical High School—their cross-town rivals—as a payback for events that occurred the weekend before.

Last Weekend, the Mutts from CTH—led by the disdainful Cato and Marvel—decided to crash an exclusive Panem party. However, they were kicked out and brutally ridiculed by the Football team, namely Peeta, Gale, and Darius. The Mutts, embarrassed and filled with rage, decided to have a little payback by completely trashing all the Mockingjay's cars. It was then that Peeta and his team had declared war and decided that the following week, they would teach those Mutts a lesson:

Payback's a bitch.

The only thing wrong with this full proof plan was the fact that Peeta had indeed forgotten about it. It wasn't his fault though! At least, that's what he told himself as his back hit the lockers behind him in an attempt to back away from an angry looking Gale.

"Oh?" Gale yelled, "You were the one who declared war and came up with the plan and not to mention, completely forgot about it and all you can say is 'Oh'? You got to be fucking kidding me!"

"I-I'm sorry?" said Peeta as more of a question.

Gale sighed along with the whole team.

"Look," said Peeta as he stepped towards his friend, "I really am sorry I forgot. I just got a lot on my mind right now."

It was true, ever since Gale told him about the suicide attempt of Katniss Everdeen, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Sure he didn't know anything about her—and had only spoken exactly five words to her the whole three months she was there—but somehow, his thoughts never left her. He didn't know why he felt so guilty when they called her name out for attendance in fifth period only to be marked absent. He couldn't help but feel guilty when no one bothered asking, 'I wonder what happened to Katniss Everdeen?'

Unfortunately, other people noticed how distracted he had become. Even at practice his coach thought his game seemed a little off. But he just thought that maybe his star player was excited about the winter break that was coming up. This might have been true for his teammates, but not for him.

"Look captain," said Thom as he stood next to Gale, "I know you're excited that winter break is coming up, and I would be too! I-mean, how many parents do you know that would leave their kid alone, in a house, with food, and possibly beer, for two whole weeks? Can you say par-tay?"

A laugh escaped Peeta's lips. Not only did Thom manage to make a fool of himself once again, but he also didn't know the real reason why Peeta's mind was elsewhere, which meant that no one else knew where his mind was.

"Yeah," piped in Mitchell, "you can't let next week's excitement get the best of you. I-mean, no one can wait for the parties you're going to throw."

"What these two idiots here are trying to say is that you got to stay focused," said Gale, "You can't go around pretending to be the shit when you're just acting like shit."

Peeta sighed as he grabbed his bag and swung it over his shoulder, "You know what?" he said, "You guys are right. I shouldn't let myself get too excited about all the fun I'll have when my parents are out of town. I'm sorry I lost myself for a second there. Are we cool?"

By this time, Peeta was standing in front of Gale who looked up at his best friend. Gale seemed to contemplate whether or not to accept his friend's apology before a smirk found its way onto his face. He nodded and extended his hand so that they could do their manly handshake.

"You bet." said Gale as the whole team started laughing.

"So," said Darius as he and Peeta started walking towards the exit, "are we still on for tonight?"

Peeta turned towards his team who were all staring at him in anticipation. He gave them his famous Peeta Mellark signature smirk.

"Fuck yea." was all he said before he made his way out of the locker room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments and the Kudos guys :)


	4. Payback's A Bitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Game s or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise no ted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Fuck.

That's the only thought that came to Peeta's mind as he stood in the middle of what was once CTH's gym. He flashed his flashlight around the gym as he inspected all the damage. He and his teammates had done a number to it. There was toilet paper all over the bleachers and in the basketball hoops. Neon colored silly string was covering the ground and some chairs that were left behind. Thom and some of the other guys were spray-painting the walls with vulgar pictures and sayings as Darius was putting whip cream all over some basketballs that he found. The whole place was a mess.

The night had gone really well thus far. The whole team met up at Gale's house at midnight, telling all their parents that there was a 'last day of school before winter break sleep over.' They went over their plan and put all their 'supplies' into their cars. From there they drove to Career Technical High School and broke into the gym. It surprised Peeta how easy it was to break in. It was as if God was on their side and had decided to let them in easily.

"What do you think Peeta?" asked Gale as he stood next to his best friend with his arms crossed over his chest.

Peeta turned towards Gale and smirked, "I think we did a great job." he said, "Those Mutts are never going to know what hit them."

Gale mirrored Peeta's smirk and nodded his head in agreement as he looked at his teammates who were putting the finishing touches to a mural on the wall.

"Alright guys," he said, "let's go."

They all headed towards the exit and were about to open the door to leave when suddenly the gym lights suddenly came on. The whole team turned around to see what looked like a huge CTH janitor and two police officers.

"Run!" Peeta heard someone yell.

The whole team ran outside and scattered around trying to get to their cars.

Bad idea.

There were cops everywhere. People were running around trying to escape the cops as cars were starting drive away with some guys hanging on for dear life.

Peeta stood on the steps of one of the gym's entrance, looking at what was going on. He couldn't believe he was so stupid. How could he not think they weren't going to get caught? Peeta was literally frozen in place until he felt someone tugging on his arm.

"Peeta c'mon man move!"

Peeta looked at who it was pulling him and saw Gale's distressed face. He finally snapped out of his frozen state and started running behind his friend. They both ran around the corner and through a door that led inside the school.

"Shit, shit, shit!" yelled Gale, "What the fuck are we going to do? We can't get caught! If we do, our seasons over, not to mention we might get suspended, or worse expelled and there goes our free pass to college! No scholarship, no college, no college parties, no hot college girls…oh God! Our lives are ruined!"

Peeta sighed as he pushed his friend and held him up against a locker. "Gale!" he yelled, "Snap out of it! We're not gonna get caught!"

"We're not?" asked Gale as Peeta held him tighter by his shirt.

"No!"

"Then what are we going to do?"

"I don't know, but you've got to calm down! You're the one that was pumped up about this plan, remember?"

"Yea, that was before I knew we were gonna get caught. Trust me, if I knew I was never gonna get the opportunity to date a hot college girl, then I would have never agreed to this."

Peeta rolled his eyes as he let his friend go.

"C'mon," Peeta said as he started walking down the hall, "maybe there's another way out."

Both guys walked down the dark hallway with nothing but a flashlight lighting the way.

They finally decided to walk into a classroom where there was an open window. Peeta pointed at the window as Gale surveyed the room.

"I'll go out first and make sure that the coast is clear. If it isn't, you're gonna have to find another way out." Peeta said.

Gale nodded his head and watched as Peeta slowly climbed out the window. Once Peeta landed on the ground, he felt a smile form on his face. He was about to tell Gale that the coast was clear when a flashlight suddenly blinded him. He turned around and came face to face with three policemen.

Fuck.  
_____

"Peeta, how can you be so STUPID?" yelled Jon Mellark.

He and his wife had just returned home from picking up his son at the police station at three o'clock in the morning. When they got home, they ordered Peeta to sit on the couch where his parents had been yelling at him for the past 15 minutes.

"Dad, I said I was sorry," said Peeta as he leaned back on the couch.

"Sorry isn't gonna cut it out for you today!"

He watched his father pace back and fourth in front of him while his mother sat in the couch next to him.

"Peeta," she said, "why would you do something like this?"

"I already told you guys," Peeta said exasperated, "We were just getting them back for what they did to us. Remember when they completely trashed my car, and dad got so mad that he had to pay extra to get the paint off the windshields? We just wanted to get them back for that, and dad, even you said we should get even with them!"

"Yes, but I meant on the field son! I never said to go trash their gym. The only way to get even with them is to put their money where their mouths are and kick their asses on the fucking football field!"

"Jon watch your language" scolded his wife.

"Well I'm sorry Lucille, but when I get a phone call at 2 o'clock in the morning telling me that I got to pick up my son from the police station, I tend to yell and get angry!"

"Well your yelling isn't helping anyone!" yelled Lucille as she stood in front of her husband.

"Yeah? Well I could care less if my yelling helps anyone at this point! Because seriously, who else do you know that has to pick up their son from the police station when he's supposed to be at a fucking SLEEPOVER?"

"Daddy?" said a small voice coming from the top of the stairs.

Everyone turned to look towards where the voice came from. They suddenly saw the youngest member of the Mellark family groggily walking down the steps in her pink Barbie pajamas and her pet stuffed goat Lady. Her blonde locks were separated by two messy braids and her thumb was in her mouth as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Primrose, sweetheart," said Lucille as she walked over to the blonde six-year-old, "Did we wake you?"

Young Primrose Mellark nodded wiping her eyes and walked towards her mom who wrapped her arms around her and picked her up.

"I heard daddy yelling and I woke up," said the young girl. "Lady woke up too and started crying. I tried to calm her down but she said she was scared, so I told her I would make it stop."

"I'm sorry Prim," said Jon as he looked at his daughters innocent eyes, "It's just that daddy gets angry sometimes and yells. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you."

Prim looked towards the couch and noticed her big brother sitting with his head hung down in shame.

"Is Peeta in trouble?" she asked.

Peeta suddenly looked up and met his sister's blue eye's. He didn't know why, but for some reason, in that moment he saw her, his thoughts went back to Katniss. Her eyes seemed so innocent and shy that day he asked her for a pencil. He wondered how they looked now, blank, cold, hard, dead. He didn't know, and he figured he never would. All he knew was that if the thought of suicide came into the innocent mind of someone like Katniss, would it also enter the mind of someone as young and as innocent as Primrose?

"Yes," Jon's voice snapped Peeta's mind back to reality, "he is."

"Why?" asked Prim.

"Because he did something very bad, and now he's going to be punished for it."

"Does that mean he can't take me ice skating next week when you and mommy are gone?"

Lucille sighed and looked at her daughter, "Prim sweetie, why don't you go back to bed? I'll go up there in a minute and tuck you back in."

The young girl nodded her head and got down from her mothers arms. She ran over to her dad and hugged him, "Goodnight daddy," she said.

"Good night sweetheart." he said as he bent down to give her a kiss on her forehead.

She then ran over to Peeta and gave him a hug, "Goodnight Peeta." she said.

Peeta wrapped his arms around his little sister and smiled, "Goodnight Prim."

She then smiled at him and ran back up the stairs towards her room.

Jon sighed.

"Peeta," he said after a while of silence, "I'm sorry I yelled at you like that. I'm just trying to get you to understand how stupid you acted tonight. You're lucky that they're not pressing any criminal charges."

"I know dad," said Peeta looking up and meet his father's eyes, "I'm sorry."

It was Lucille's turn to sigh, "Maybe…maybe we shouldn't go to Mammoth next week."

"What?" asked Peeta, "Mom, no…you can't."

"Why not?" she asked. "You act completely irresponsible now, what makes us think you're not going to act irresponsible when we're gone?"

"Look mom," said Peeta as he stood n front of her, "I know I fucked up tonight,"

"Language Peeta." his father interrupted him.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I-mean, I know I messed up tonight, but you shouldn't let my stupid mistakes ruin your vacation plans. I know you guys have been saving up for it since last winter and I feel bad to make you guys just let it go to waste."

Lucille heaved another sigh and looked towards her husband.

"You know Lucy," said Jon, "he has a point. We did pay for it already and you know how hard it is to get a full refund on two plane tickets on such short notice? It's just going to be for a couple of days. I'm sure Peeta can handle it."

"But what about Prim? I don't want to leave her hear if Peeta is going to pull something like this again."

"I won't mom. I promise that nothing will happen to her."

"I don't know." she sighed.

"C'mon mom, please?" said Peeta as he knelt down on his knees and pouted his lips.

"Yes mom, please?" said Jon as he imitated his son.

"Jon, you were the one who was yelling five minutes ago."

"I know, but think about it honey. This was supposed to be our second honeymoon. Do you really want to lose the chance to go be alone, not to mention the fact that full refunds might not even be an option?"

Lucille looked at the two most important men in her life and gave a small smile, 'Like father, like son.' she thought.

"Fine," she said as both men gave a sigh of relief, "but hear this Peeta." she continued as she stood in front of her son, "If you mess up one more time and if one hair on Primrose's head is harmed, you are grounded until graduation. You got that?"

"Yes mom. I got it," he said with a smile on his face.  
_____

Peeta slowly crept into the pink room. Toys were scattered everywhere making it hard for him to sneak up on the sleeping figure in the bed. He was just about to take another step forward when the sleeping figure suddenly sat up and gave a cheeky grin.

"Peeta!" she exclaimed.

"Shhh," said Peeta as he got closer to the young girl and sat down on her bed, "you don't want to wake mom and dad do you?"

The young girl widened her eyes and shook her head. Peeta began to chuckle as he looked into his little sisters eye that clearly mirrored his own. Her soft blonde curls, which were now completely loose from her braids, dangled down her shoulders and seemed to shine in the moonlight coming from the window. To Peeta, it seemed like she glowed. Her angelic face was squirming with laughter, as he did nothing but stare at her.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to tuck you in tonight," he said softly.

Prim's face suddenly turned sad as she looked at her big brother, "I told daddy that I couldn't go to sleep unless you scared away all the monsters from under my bed and my closet. But he told me that you went to Gale's house and that he would scare the monsters away instead."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that Prim. Did he scare them away?"

"He said he did, but I still think there's one under my bed, and Lady said she heard one in the closet."

"She did, did she?" asked Peeta as he stood up and knelt down on the floor.

He lifted the bed sheets to look under her bed, "Nope," he said, "no monsters down here. I guess dad really did scare them."

He then stood up and walked towards the closet. He opened the door and stuck his head in, "Nope, no one in here."

He was about to close the door when he suddenly yanked the door open again, "Wait a minute," he said, "Dad missed one."

He turned back towards his sister who had a scared look on her face, "This will just take a minute." He then stepped in the closet and slightly banged on the walls.

"Take this you ugly monster!" Prim heard her brother yell. Suddenly, the banging stopped as she heard Peeta gasp for breath, "P-P-Prim," he said as if he was out of breath, "I n-need help!"

Prim quickly jumped out of bed and ran towards the closet; she opened the door and saw her brother sitting against the wall, reaching for her, "H-Help me! The monster's trying to get me! H-Help!"

"How Peeta?" she gasped.

"All you have to d-do is say 'Peeta is the best brother in the whole world' and he'll go away forever."

The young girl quickly nodded her head and said, "Peeta is the best brother in the whole world!"

Peeta suddenly stopped moving and hung his head down. Prim's eyes widened with fright as she walked towards her brother. "P-Peeta?" she said in a small voice, "Are you alive?"

Peeta suddenly inhaled a deep breath and looked up at his sister. "Prim! You saved me!"

The young girl smiled as her brother picked her up by the waist and ran around the room. Prim started to giggle as he tossed her in the air before he finally placed her on her bed.

"There," he said, "no more monsters in your room."

"Thank you for making them go away."

"Don't worry about it. I promise you that as long as I'm here, nothing will ever hurt you, ok?"

Prim smiled as he pulled the covers up to her shoulders and tucked her in. "Did you brush your teeth?"

Prim nodded hear head.

"Let me smell."

She suddenly blew a gust of fresh minty breath that reached Peeta's nostrils.

"Ah, Delicious." he said as he gave her another smile and kissed her on the forehead, "Now go to sleep." He stood up and began to walk towards the door.

"Peeta?" he heard Prim say. He turned around and looked at her.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Are you still going to take me ice skating next week?" she asked.

Peeta let out a chuckle, "Yes, Prim. I promise I will."

She smiled at him again as he turned to leave but was once again distracted when he heard Prim call him again.

"What?" he asked as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"You forgot to give Lady a kiss too."

Peeta laughed quietly as he walked towards the bed, bent down, and gave the pet goat a kiss on the forehead.

"There," he said, "now will you go to sleep?"

Prim nodded her head as he walked back towards the door.

"Peeta?" he heard her say just before he was going to close the door.

"What is it now, Prim?" he asked.

"I love you."

Peeta smiled as he looked at the lying figure on the bed.

"I love you too," he said as he shut the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is super late, but I hope you can forgive me for it.


	5. Juvnile Delinquent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all the support. I hope you guys can enjoy this chapter. Please leave me some feedback :)
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Game s or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise no ted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Chapter 4: Juvenile Delinquent

Three Days Later…

"It's a nice day today isn't it?"

Nothing.

"They say it's going to be the hottest day of the week…well, if you think 68 degrees is hot then it's your kind of day."

Silence.

"Would you like to go for a walk?"

More nothing.

"I heard that you like to read. I could bring you some books if you want."

The silence continues.

Annie Cresta gave a long sigh as she looked at the fragile girl in front of her. It was now Tuesday, three days after that frightful night when Katniss Everdeen had attempted to end her life. Now, at twelve o'clock in the afternoon, Dr. Cresta was desperately trying to get the young girl to talk. She even went as far as to sit in her line of vision in order to have some form of eye contact with the young girl. However, the young girl had done nothing but sleep and keep her eyes on the wall. Nothing Annie said or did could make the girl take her eyes off that wall.

Annie gave another sigh as she looked towards the one-way mirror at the front of the room where she and her colleagues could watch the girl from next door. She tucked a lock of her auburn hair behind her ear before she looked down at her watch.

"Our time's up," she said as she looked at the girl in front of her, "I'll swing by later to see how you're doing. Maybe I can even convince Dr. Aurelius to let me take you to our garden outside."

The silence still lingered in the room as Annie let out yet another sigh before she slowly stood up and walked out the room with her clipboard in her hand. She walked into the room next door to Kaniss' and looked towards the glass wall. She could clearly see the young girl still looking at the wall, not moving an inch.

"I don't understand," said a voice in the room.

Annie turned towards a handsome young man her age, with copper hair and perfectly tanned skin. He was tall and muscular, an obvious fan of waking up at the crack of dawn to run 5 miles. His teeth were straight and perfectly white. His sea-green eyes had the ability to make any woman's bra pop open on its own. Not that this ever had an affect on Annie. She was used to his looks and charm to be cast under his spell, much to the chagrin of her friend. She gave a small smile as she put the clipboard on the table in front of her and sat on the chair beside him.

"Most suicide attempts would usually be cracking right now, asking us to give them the drugs and to let them die. Why hasn't she cracked yet?"

"I don't know," She said, "Maybe she's still in shock."

"I don't think so," said the man as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Finnick, or "Finn", Odair had always been a good friend of Annie's. They've been the best of friends ever since they could remember. They went to high school together and even went to med school together. Although Finnick had decided to practice medicine in New York, he was always available to lend a helping hand every time she would have trouble with a patient. To say that Finnick Odair was responsible for making Annie Cresta a successful doctor before the age of thirty was an understatement.

"Maybe she's just having a reaction to the medication you guys gave her when she first came here," he said.

"I tried looking through her medical records last night, but nothing makes sense," She said as she grabbed her clipboard from the table and started to look through her notes, "Nothing here indicates there was ever anything wrong with her. Her file's clean, almost as if she's never been sick a day in her life."

"That's weird," he replied. He took the clipboard from his friend's hand and looked through Katniss' file.

"Hmm…" he said after a few moments, "I might know why."

"What did you find?"

"These records are only from hospitals in the central California area, maybe even from all of California. You said she was a foster child right?"

Annie slowly nodded, "Yea, well, at least that's what Dr. Aurelius said."

"So she's probably moved around a lot. Maybe you should ask Social Services for her records. I'm sure they'll give you something. Or maybe her foster mom knows something. I'm pretty sure they had to give her information about her medical history when she took Katniss in."

"I'm not too sure about her foster mom."

"Why's that?"

"She dropped off all of Katniss' stuff last night. She said she just couldn't have a 'crazy' person living with her anymore. There were nothing related to medical records there, just…just…" Annie suddenly stopped as a sudden realization came to her.

"Just what?" asked Finnick as his best friend suddenly stood up and started to look through the manila folder on her clipboard.

Annie's lips suddenly curved upward as she took out a neatly folded blue colored piece of paper, "Just a birth certificate."

Finnick smiled and stood up to look at the paper in his friend's hands, "I bet if we put her birth information in the system we could find anything we want to know about her."

Annie nodded her head as she suddenly heard someone walk into the room. They both looked over and noticed Effie walk in, the click-clack of her heels echoing around them.

"Excuse me Dr. Cresta?" she asked.

"Yes Effie?"

"Dr. Aurelius wanted me to remind you that you would be supervising our new custodial worker. He said he spoke to you about it earlier today."

Annie let out a sigh. Dr. Aurelius had left a memo on Annie's desk stating that she was to be responsible for him. Up until this point, she had completely forgotten about the 'delinquent' she would have to supervise until the end of his probation.

"He's waiting for you in your office," said Effie.

"Ok, I'll be there in a moment," Annie said once she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. She really did not want to be responsible for some juvenile delinquent. She was a doctor in charge of the well being of patients, not a babysitter.

Effie nodded as a smile suddenly found her lips when she noticed the young man for the first time, "Finnick!" she exclaimed, "I didn't know you were here! When did you arrive?" she asked as she bent forward to hug the man, giving him a full view of her certainly fake cleavage.

Annie tried to hold back a laugh at Finn's obvious discomfort once Effie began to stroke his hair.

"Last night," he said as tried to look at everywhere else but Effie's cleavage.

"Well you look as handsome as ever Finnick, have you been working out?" she asked as she began to squeeze his biceps.

"Oh Effie," he said as he grabbed her hand and pressed a soft kiss to it, "You always know how to make me blush. You're looking more exquisite than the last time I saw you. Dare I ask, are those new?"

Annie rolled her eyes as Effie blushed and began to giggle like a schoolgirl, "Oh you devil, you," she said, "Let me guess, you're here to help Dr. Cresta again?"

Finnick flashed a charming smile, "Of course. Everyone knows Annie here can't function without me."

"Hey!" exclaimed Annie as she playfully punched him in the arm.

"Ouch! That hurt," said Finnick, rubbing the sore spot on his shoulder.

"Oh suck it up Odair," she smirked before turning to Effie, "Effie can you please do me a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?" she asked

"I was wondering if you would type the information on this birth certificate into our database. Find out where she was born and to whom and the like."

"Sure, I'll get right on it," said Effie as she took the paper in her hands. She quickly looked over its contents before she turned towards the glass wall.

"How's she doing?" she asked as she saw the sickly girl stare at the wall.

"Not to good." said Finnick, as he took out his phone.

"The poor thing." said Effie.

"Yea," sighed Annie, "that's why I need you to see if you can find out anything about her."

"I'll get right on it," she said as she was going to walk out the door, but not before she quickly turned back around, "Don't forget about the boy."

"Oh, goody!" said Annie sarcastically as the woman left.

"Sarcasm does not fit your wondrous face Annie," said Finnick.

"Don't start with me Finn, its bad enough that I have to see her practically throw herself at you, now I have to go play babysitter. Why do you even lead her on?"

"Jealous Annie?" he asked while he wiggled his eyebrow,

"You wish Odair," she smirked.

"Well, if you're not going to be the one flashing your tits then the least I can do is let someone else have the honors. How much do those even weigh?"

Annie broke out in laughter, "I'm not sure, but I think she can use those as flotation devices if there was ever a massive flood."

Laughter consumed them both. Finnick began gasping for breath when he began to laugh too hard, while Annie began to rub her side in pain. This all stopped however when she looked down at the court papers for the new custodial worker that Effie had left behind.

"I guess I should go play babysitter," she said with groan.

"It can't be any worse than what you already do," said Finnick, "How much trouble could he possible be?"

_____

Peeta was ready to poke his eyes out from boredom as he sat in a pristine office decorated with awards and diplomas. He'd been sitting there for the past thirty minutes waiting for some doctor to 'lay down the law.' He still couldn't believe how stupid he had been. He just had to go and listen to Gale! He didn't think it was fair that although the whole team was there, vandalizing the Mutt's gym, he and two other juniors were the only one's that got caught. Gale had stayed inside the building and hid in a janitor's closet until Saturday morning. Lucky for the team, the school did not cancel the rest of their season but instead made the whole team clean the CTH gym and gave them each detention for the next three months. Not only that, but Peeta's parents had grounded him until the end of the school year, and his grandma agreed to check in on him and Prim everyday. His three weeks of no school and no parents had officially gone down the drain.

As Peeta sat there he remembered his court trial the day before and how they had sentenced him to 500 hours of community service. He was shocked when he learned he was being forced to serve as a janitor at the local hospital.

"What did you think you'd be doing? Brain surgery?"

He still heard the mocking voice of the head of the custodial department in the hospital laughing at him in his head.

"So, where exactly am I supposed be at?"

"The twelfth floor."

"What's that, like pediatrics?" asked Peeta with a hopeful look.

"Nope, the psychiatric ward."

"Psychiatric? You mean like crazy people?"

"Don't get too close, they might bite."

Peeta suddenly felt his phone vibrate and checked to see the caller ID. The word Dad flashed on the screen before he decided to answer it.

"Hey dad," he said.

"Hey Peeta, I'm just calling to let you know that you're mom and I are on our way to the airport. Grandma will check in on you and Prim's with the neighbors."

"Ok dad."

"Remember, if we get one phone call from grandma about you during our trip, we're coming straight home. You understand?"

"Yes dad."

"And if something happens to Prim…"

"I know," Peeta cut him off, "don't worry about it dad. I told you, Gale's sleeping over most of vacation so we'll both be there."

"Why doesn't that make me feel any better?"

"Dad, just trust me will you?"

"I don't know about that son."

Peeta sighed.

"Dad please just trusts me. I promise nothing will happen."

He heard his dad sigh on the other end of the line, "Ok son, and don't forget to make sure Prim goes out with a jacket every night, and that she takes her vitamins."

"I won't."

"Ok then. Goodbye Peeta. I love you."

"I love you too dad. Tell mom I'll miss her and that I love her."

"I will. And remember," said his dad before he hung up, "One screw up, and we're done being the nice parents."

"Ok, bye dad."

"Bye son."

Peeta hung up his phone before he heard a cough coming from the doorway.

"Rule one," said a beautiful woman with a clipboard in her hand, "No cell phones. It interferes with our machines."

She walked into the room and sat behind her desk.

"Are you Dr. Cresta?" asked Peeta a bit confused. For some reason, he thought Dr. Cresta was an old guy with grey thinning hair and wrinkles all over his face.

"Yes, and you must be the juvenile delinquent I'm in charge of. Peeta is it?"

"Umm, yea," he said extending his hand to which Annie just stared at. Peeta dropped his hand before running it through his golden locks.

"So here's the deal, you'll work from eight to two on weekdays and nine to one on weekends. No cell phones, no eating or sleeping on the job, don't speak unless spoken too, and absolutely no friends visiting. We don't need any more delinquents running around here. Understand?"

Peeta nodded his head. She then took out a neatly folded grey janitor uniform from her desk drawer and handed it to him.

"Oh, and one more thing," she said, "There is absolutely no need to for you to speak to any of the patients here. You just go in, give them fresh sheets, clean up after them and then you'll go on your way."

"Sure thing," he said. Truthfully, Peeta didn't have befriending a crazy person in mind.

"Okay," she said as she took out some papers and handed some to him, "Here's a map and some stuff that you have to fill out before you get started."

She handed them to him along with a pen.

"Sign here, and here, oh, and here."

"What's all this?" he asked as he signed his name on the lines she pointed to.

"Basically, you just agreed to be my bitch for the next two months."

"How fun," he said sarcastically.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Both Peeta and Annie looked towards the doorway and saw Effie standing with a paper in her hand.

"What is it Effie?" asked Annie

"I need to speak to you, privately."

Annie sighed in frustration. Didn't Effie know that she had to get Peeta situated as fast as she can so she could get back to work?

"Can't this wait?"

Effie slowly shook her head, "It's about Katniss."

At the mention of Katniss' name, both Peeta and Annie stared at Effie, wide eyed in shock.

"Umm, Peeta," she began "I'll be right back. Just finish going through the paperwork."

Peeta nodded his head as he watched Dr. Cresta leave the room with the plastic-like clerk he met out front.

Could it be? Could the girl whose suicide attempt he couldn't seem to take his mind of off be here in this hospital? How many other Katniss' lived in the area, or in the whole country for that matter? Peeta didn't know, but he was soon about to find out.

_____

"What's going on Effie? What happened?" asked Annie once she met Effie out in the hallway.

"It's about the birth certificate you gave me."

"Oh, did you find anything?"

"That's what I need to speak to you about."

"What do you mean?"

Effie let out a nervous chuckle "Well you see," she began, "I typed all the information into the database and I didn't find anything at all. Then I thought about Katniss was really a unique name and started researching how many people there are with that name. I came across an article about someone with that name."

"But what's the problem?" asked Annie.

"The person who the article was about was named Katniss Everdeen. According to that article, Katniss Everdeen died twenty years ago in a New York hospital."

"Y-You're kidding," said Annie, dumbfounded.

"I wish I was. I thought maybe it was a mistake, so I got a hold of a friend who works through Social Services."

"What did your friend say?"

"H-H-He…" began Effie, before she looked away from Annie's piercing stare.

"What did he say?"

"He said there is no record of a Katniss Everdeen ever existing."


	6. Gray Meets Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Game s or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise no ted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Chapter 5: Gray Meets Blue

"He said there is no record of a Katniss Everdeen ever existing."

"What?" exclaimed Annie, "It can't be. Are you sure?"

"Yes. He entered the information on the birth certificate four times and found nothing. The real Katniss Everdeen died 20 years ago so as far as everyone else is concerned, Katniss doesn't exist," said Effie.

Annie suddenly exhaled a deep breath that she didn't even know she was holding in. Katniss Everdeen, her patient, was now a non-existent suicidal Jane Doe. How can that be?

"Where's Dr. Aurelius?" she asked as she leaned against the wall.

"He's in a meeting."

Annie sighed and looked down at the floor.

"I have to tell him."

"Well you can't tell him right now. One must never forget their manners my dear, even if they are in times of trouble. Besides, it's an important board meeting, there's no telling what might happen if you just go in unannounced," said Effie as she handed the birth certificate back to Annie.

"Ok," sighed Annie as she accepted the paper from Effie, "Do me a favor and try and ask your friend if he could find out anything about her. Somebody from Social Services has to know something. They wouldn't just put anyone into the system if they didn't exist."

Effie wrote down her instructions in her small notebook that she used to remind her of tasks she was supposed to complete.

"And also try and get a hold of Katniss' foster mom. Ask her who her social worker was and try to get in contact with them."

Effie nodded her head before she walked away, leaving Annie alone in the hallway.

How can this be happening? In all her years of working as a psychiatrist, Annie Cresta had never had a patient who she couldn't diagnose. Sure, there were some times when Finnick had to help her but in the end, she always had the solution to anyone's problem. How was she supposed to help a non-existent person who won't talk let alone look at her? All these thoughts were interrupted as she felt someone tap her on her shoulder. She let out a little yelp before she met Peeta's eyes. She quickly exhaled a deep breath and touched her temple with her fingers.

"Peeta," she said, "didn't your mother ever teach you not to sneak up on people like that?"

"Well, yea," he said, "She also taught me not to vandalize school buildings, but look where that got me."

Annie gave him a small smile while she stood up straight and walked back into her office.

"So," Peeta said as he walked in after her, "what am I supposed to do now?"

Annie looked up at the boy and noticed that he took the liberty to change into his janitor uniform—a brown one piece suit—while she was speaking to Effie outside.

"Now, you're supposed to be working. Go to the janitor's closet down the hall, get some fresh sheets and put them in every single room that's on this list," she said as she gave him a list of room numbers.

"Remember," she continued, "no speaking with any of the patients. Just go in, drop them off, and one of the nurses will change them. Also, I don't want to hear any complaints about you. I'm a doctor as well as your boss, not a babysitter. One little complaint and I'll make sure your probation officer hears about it the minute it happens. Got that?"

"Yea." He said. He turned to walk out the office, but stopped when he heard Annie say his name. He turned back towards his boss and met his blue eyes with her own.

"Peeta, don't forget that everything you see and hear in this hospital is and stays confidential. If you ever hear anything about a patient, you ignore it and forget about it, ok?"

'You mean if I hear anything about Katniss?' he thought as he nodded.

He had no idea why the suicidal girl was still on his mind. When he heard Katniss' name from the heavily made up lady's mouth, it was as if his heart suddenly stopped. He knew that Katniss was obviously in the hospital after trying to kill herself but he never really thought that she could be there, on the twelfth floor, the mental ward. It was just a bit unexpected and completely caught him off guard. She's just a patient, he told himself over and over while he was putting on his uniform. He had tried to get closer to the door to see if he could hear anything that Dr. Cresta and the made up lady were saying, but found that they were speaking way too low. When he figured he wouldn't be able to hear them, he began to wonder why he cared so much. Was it guilt for not paying attention to her? Yea, maybe that's what it was. Nobody likes being ignored. Hell, he sometimes got jealous when Prim got all the attention from his parents.

Maybe if someone would have just taken the time to actually get to know her, this would have never happened. She would have never been in the hospital and he would have never been forced to work here while on probation…ok…so maybe the second part wasn't true. Gale would have still talked him into vandalizing the CTH gym and thus enabling him to work at the hospital while serving his probation—but at least she wouldn't be there locked up in a tiny cell with doctors constantly looking after her with needles and pills.

"Peeta?" Dr. Cresta's voice interrupted his thoughts, "Are we clear?"

"Crystal," he said as he tried to suppress thoughts about Katniss.

"Good, when you're done, tell Effie at the front desk and she'll let you know what to do next."

Peeta nodded his head as he walked out of the office and headed for the janitors closet down the hall. He opened the door and flipped the light switch on. His eyes grew wide as he saw the wall full of fresh sheets. He suddenly looked down at the list of room numbers and sighed.

This was going to be a long day.  
_____

"Finnick?" asked Annie as she knocked on the door belonging to the room next to Katniss…or whatever her real name was.

Finnick, who was facing the wall that peeked into Katniss' room, turned his head to look back at her. She could tell he was on his phone and waited patiently for him to get off. He turned back towards the one way mirror and mumbled a few things before he shut his phone and turned back to look at her.

"Hey, sorry about that," he said, "I was just talking to my girlfriend back home."

"Right, Enobaria was it?"

"Yea."

"How is she?"

"She's good, just wanted to know when I'll be getting back. I told her that you really needed my help and that I might be staying longer than expected."

"You don't know how happy I am to hear you say that."

"Why? What happened? Did you find anything out?"

"Yea," she said as she slowly sat down on a chair that faced Katniss' room, who she noticed still hadn't moved an inch.

"Why do you look like you're going to faint?" asked Finnick as he sat down next to her.

"Well, I found out some pretty shocking stuff."

"Like what?"

"She doesn't exist."

"What do you mean she doesn't exist?"

"I mean that there's no record of her existing at all. The real Katniss Everdeen died 20 years ago so according to the government she doesn't exist."

"You're kidding right?"

"I wish I was. But Effie contacted a few people and they confirmed it all."

"She still won't talk right?" he asked.

"No," she said as she looked at the girl in the other room. She hasn't spoken to anyone, didn't even make a sound when they revived her. She hasn't responded to her or any of the nurses. Maybe she needed something else, a different method to get her attention. Either something, or better yet, someone else.

A thought suddenly entered her head as she looked at her friend, a small smile forming on her lips.

"What?" he asked with a skeptical look on his face.

"Why don't you go in there and try to talk to her?" she asked him.

"Ha-ha, no."

"What? Why?"

"Because, me and freaky suicidal teenage girls don't mix."

"C'mon Finn, please? She hasn't responded to me at all. Maybe if she sees someone new, she'll talk. I-mean I know that if the same woman was trying to get me to talk all the time, I would have definitely talked if I saw someone else other than her."

"The answer is no," he said crossing his arms in a definite answer.

"Why not?"

"B-Because, she's your patient not mine. I'm just here to observe," he said as he motioned towards Katniss' room with his hands.

"Finn, why are you being an asshole?"

"I put my whole life on hold to come and help you and I'm the one being an asshole?" asked Finnick, an incredulous look on his face.

Annie sighed with a dejected look on her face.

Finnick sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He really did feel bad that he was refusing Annie. He could never refuse her anything at all, not since they were kids and he refused to put on one of her dresses to play dress up with her, "Look," he began, "I'm sorry. I just don't think it's a good idea for me to go in there, ok? I-mean if this is how she reacts with you, there's no telling how she might react if a man tried to get her to talk."

"Finnick, I don't know why you're being so difficult? I've helped you so many times. For fuck's sake, I broke up with three of your girlfriends for you. Not one, not two, but three!" she said, raising three fingers in front of his face to emphasize her point.

"Hey, in my defense I would've been seriously hurt if I did the dumping on my own," he said as Annie rolled her eyes at his comment.

"Look, I know that we've both been there for eachother plenty of times. But I'm sorry, I just don't feel comfortable going in there. We both know I'm not as strong as you when it comes to not cracking under pressure so if I go in there, I'll probably get fed up for not making her talk and just yell. Besides, I specialize in helping adults not teenagers. I've never had to help a teenage girl before and I feel that if I will all those stupid high school memories of being laughed at by them will come back to haunt me."

Annie sighed as her friend finished his sentence. She knew that high school wasn't very good to him, especially when it came to dating. Hard to believe but high school was not very good to the now charming and stunning Finnick Odair. His bronze, unruly hair made him stick out like a sore thumb and he had thick-rimmed glasses that sat on his nose. His freckles were obvious against his white skin and food was constantly getting caught in his braces. He wasn't fat, but he wants particularly skinny either.

It wasn't until college that Finnick finally decided to come out of his shell. His braces came off, leaving him with straight and extremely white teeth. He ditched the glasses for contacts and started working out by the lake during the summer, allowing him to receive his nice tan and his perfectly fit body. Things have definitely changed since high school. So much so that Annie wondered if he was the same boy she used to make mud cakes with. However one quick joke or heartfelt comment reassured her that deep down inside, he was still her Finnick.

"Either way, I don't think you're going to need my help any longer," he said, breaking her out of her trance.

"Why?"

He pointed towards the one way mirror that allowed them to peek into Katniss' room.

Needless to say, what they saw shocked them both.  
_____

'Room 112' read Peeta as he nervously scratched the back of his neck and sighed.

So far, in his 20 minutes of working in the hospital, he got hit in the head with a pillow by some freaky old lady; felt violated when some guy about 50 years old or so told him he had a nice ass, and almost got vomited on by a guy who looked like he hadn't eaten in months. To say that this was the worst day of his life was an understatement.

He sighed again as he grabbed some fresh sheets off the cart he had been pushing around. He looked through the small window on the door and nervously bit his lip. All he saw was a body with long and dark stringy hair facing the wall opposite the door. He took a deep breath before he knocked on the door twice and opened it.

It was strange, the patient, who he guessed was a girl, didn't turn towards him. She didn't even flinch or show any sign that she had actually heard him. He looked to the left of him and saw a tinted glass wall. Was she being watched?

'Strange,' He thought.

None of the other rooms he went to had the glass wall. Maybe this girl was crazier than he thought. He walked towards a small table in the far corner of the room and set the sheets down. He turned towards the girl to see if she had finally reacted to his presence.

Nothing.

He let out a breath that he didn't even know he was holding in. He guessed he was expecting her to throw or yell something at him. Instead he got nothing.

He slowly began to cautiously take a few steps back just to make sure the girl wouldn't do anything. When he was sure she wasn't going to respond to him, he breathed another sigh of relief and took another step back.

Big mistake.

His lack of eyesight in the back of his head made him trip over a chair, causing it to tip over with a loud BANG. He suddenly felt his butt make contact with the hard tile floor. He cursed himself for being so clumsy before he suddenly looked up and inhaled a sharp breath.

To Peeta, it seemed that time had stopped and wouldn't continue again until he looked away, because in those few seconds it took for his dumbass to fall back on his butt, the unexpected happened.

Gray met Blue.


	7. Bad Influence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I really was intending to update this earlier so you won't be stuck on a cliffhanger for too long. But alas, life got in the way. I hope you guys can forgive me. 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Game s or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise no ted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

Chapter 6: Bad Influence 

Grey met Blue.

There were certain events and memories in Peeta's life that stayed etched in his mind like a piece of art. Take for example, the time his seven-year-old self threw a football through the tire swing in his backyard for the first time. He remembered feeling so happy and so powerful that he ran inside his house, and dragged his dad away from the fridge to show him how he scored through the tire swing. It was then that he realized that he wanted to be the best football player in all of Fresno…no…in the WHOLE world. Coincidently, ten year's later this same blue-eyed, blonde haired boy led the Mockingjay's to back-to-back championship victories.

Although scoring his first touchdown and winning those back-to-back championships would forever be at the top of his list of favorite moments in his life, nothing can ever beat the most significant memory of all. The day Primrose was born. Peeta loved his little sister since the first time he saw her in an incubator with a tube in her nose to help her breath. Wires and needles were sticking to her small fragile body. His mom had had many complications during her pregnancy resulting in giving birth to Prim two months earlier than expected. He never knew it was possible for someone to be so tiny and so fragile. It was then that he vowed that he would never let anything bad happen to her. He promised her as well as himself that he would never let any harm come to her and that he would kill the bastards who dared to try.

However, much to Peeta's amazement, both those memories were now being topped by the single look of a pale girl with dull and lifeless eyes. Yes, the first time Peeta Mellark looked into the eyes of the Katniss Everdeen, the suicidal girl from school, would forever go down in history as one of the most oddly magnificent times in Peeta Mellark's life.

Peeta could do nothing but look back at the girl who lent him a pencil in math class. He tried to remember what her eyes looked like then, but found that he could not. The shyness and innocence he swore he saw were now vanished and replaced with an eerie and empty look. He imagined that they were not as dead as they seemed now. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had a vision of a sparkling gray-eyed girl that was full of life and full of dreams. He imagined her walking down the halls of Panem High with grace and dignity accompanied with a confidence that would make Glimmer cringe. He imagined her laugh, he imagined her smile, and he imagined the feel of her soft braid in his hand. All this scared him though. How could he imagine these things about a girl who had no intention to live let alone someone he didn't even know? However, although imagining her laugh seemed scary in his mind, what scared him the most was his imagination of the warmth of her body pressed up against his own.

It took a few seconds before Peeta finally remembered how to breathe. His eyes became watery and a bit blurry from not blinking for fear of loosing the sight of her eyes on his own. He let out a deep breath before he finally blinked his eyes and moved to sit up straight, never once breaking their eye contact.

"H-H-Hi," he said, somewhat above a whisper.

The young girl did nothing but stare back with an empty look in her eyes.

"Y-You're Katniss Everdeen, aren't you?" he asked.

He felt like smacking his head with his hand. He's usually very good with words and is known as a smooth talker at Panem High. Why was he acting like such an idiot? Why couldn't he just talk to her like a normal girl?

'Because she's not,' he thought, 'she's Katniss Everdeen.'

As he answered his own question in his mind, he suddenly heard a quick scuffle of feet enter the room. He wished whoever came into the room never did, because once that person came into the room, the gray left the blue and went back to staring at the wall.

"What are you doing?" asked the voice.

He looked back to see who it was that ruined the small connection he had with Katniss. Once he did, he wished he never had, for staring back at him were the intense eyes of Dr. Cresta.

"I-I…"

"Save it!" She said as she put a hand up to stop him from talking, "Get your stuff and go to my office."

"But…"

"Now!"

Peeta reluctantly stood up, walked out the room and went to her office. There, he met a man about Dr. Cresta's age sitting down in her chair looking over some papers. He said his name was Finnick Odair and that he was a good friend of Dr. Cresta.

"Good luck with her," he said, "Annie can be quite the bitch sometimes."

"I heard that!" He heard Dr. Cresta say as she entered the room with a frustrated look on her face.

"Annie, you know I was just playing around."

"Whatever," she said as Finnick stood from the chair and allowed Dr. Cresta to sit in her own seat.

Peeta exhaled a deep breath, "Look," he said, "I didn't do anything. I swear!"

"Peeta…" sighed Dr. Cresta.

"I didn't mean to fall and distract her from…from…her wall watching or whatever it is that you call it…"

"Peeta…"

"Please don't call my dad, I didn't mean to do it. I can't help it if I'm an idiot. I think it's from hanging out with Gale too much. If you want, I'll stop acknowledging his existence …"

Annie and Finnick both looked at each other with confused looks on their faces. Who the hell was Gale?

"…I'll stop acting like an idiot just please don't call my probation officer…"

"PEETA!" yelled Dr. Cresta, "Would you stop babbling and just shut up?"

Peeta sat stunned in his chair and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in.

"I'm not going to call your probation officer or your dad nor am I going to forbid you to see this Gale person."

"You're not?" Peeta asked, "T-Then what am I doing here?"

Annie sighed again and rubbed her temples with her fingers.

"Just don't let this happen again."

She suddenly went back to reading the papers on her desk, a clear sign that Peeta was being dismissed. He suddenly stood up with a confused look on his face and quickly walked…no…ran out the door. He found that his cart with the fresh sheets was outside the office. He then began to push it towards the next room on his list all the while asking himself:

'What the fuck was that about?'

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Annie," said Finnick as he sat in the now unoccupied chair in front of Annie, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she sighed, "I guess I'm just shocked."

"Why?"

"Because!" she exclaimed, "I am one of the best doctors in Fresno. There is not one patient that I can't diagnose. I-mean sure, sometimes it takes a lot of time, but I usually can't get them to shut up after 24 hours of them being admitted! And now this suicidal teenager, who by the way doesn't exist, won't look or speak to me. But low and behold this juvenile delinquent comes along and does nothing but fall on his ass and poof! She looks at him! What, do I have to fall on my ass to get her to look at me too?"

Annie suddenly inhaled a deep breath before she met the eyes of her friend who had an amused look on his face.

"What?" she yelled.

"Annie," he began as he tried to suppress a laugh, "are you jealous?"

"Why the fuck would I be jealous?" she asked, quite taken aback.

"Oh, I don't know, because he actually accomplished what you have failed to do in the past two days?"

Annie heaved a loud sigh…hmm…sigh…she seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"Look Annie," said Finnick, "you have to stop beating yourself up for it. I-mean look on the bright side, at least we know she's not deaf."

"Why do I have the feeling that you're enjoying this?"

"I'm not," he said while miserably failing to keep a straight face.

"Ugh!" she exclaimed.

"Annie, I'm sorry." he said still smirking at her, "It's just that I can't believe you're getting so worked up about this. It's not the end of the world you know."

"It might be for her!"

"You don't know that!"

"Yes I do because I'm the only person that she has right now!"

Finnick gave a loud sigh, "Annie, have you thought that maybe this could be a good thing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe Peeta falling on his ass isn't a bad thing."

"Well, I don't see how it is a good thing."

"You said before that you wanted someone else to talk to her. Well maybe that person is Peeta. I-mean think about it. If it took him two seconds to get her to look at him, imagine how long it'll take him to get her to talk."

Annie sat in her seat and let the words of her friend sink in. It was true. Peeta had accomplished something that for once, she had failed to do. If he got her too look elsewhere, then maybe, just maybe he could get her to talk.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Peeta!" exclaimed an overly active Prim as her older brother strolled through the front door of their house. She quickly abandoned her coloring and her movie in the living room and ran over to him. Peeta, seeing that she was about to jump into his arms, bent down, picked her up, and carried her towards the kitchen.

"Hey Prim," he said after he gave her a soft kiss on her cheek, "How's my girl doing?"

He set her down on the island in the middle of the kitchen and walked towards the refrigerator.

"Bored! Gale's no fun. All he does is eat and sleep."

Peeta rolled his eyes. Yup, that sounds like Gale.

"Did you have fun with Rue today?"

"Yup! I had so much fun with her," she said referring to their neighbor who was the same age as Prim, "Her mom took us to the park and then she bought us ice cream!"

"Really? Ice cream before dinner?"

Prim looked down at the ground, "Please don't tell mommy. She's gonna get mad if you do."

Peeta let out a small chuckle which caused Prim to look up at him, "Don't worry. I won't tell. But you better eat all of the food mom made for you, ok?"

Prim gave him a soft smile while she nodded her head in agreement.

"What did you do after?" asked Peeta as he started to heat up some left over chicken his mom had left for them.

"After we went to the park, we went back to her house and we were playing with her Barbi dream house. She has a really big one, bigger than mine!" she exclaimed as she spread out her arms to show her brother how big the dollhouse was, "I was having so much fun. But then Gale came to pick me up and then I started coloring."

At the mention of his name, Gale groggily walked into the kitchen and stretched his arms.

"Do I smell food?" he asked.

Peeta rolled his eyes as he took the chicken out of the microwave and began to get some clean plates. Gale looked towards his friend and gave him a lazy smile.

"Peeta," he said, "When did you get here?"

"Nice of you to be paying attention to who's walking into the house," said Peeta.

"Well, I'm sorry but who would've thought that the Little Mermaid could put you to sleep?"

Peeta once again rolled his eyes and continued to serve the food on the plates.

"Prim," he said, "its time for you to get cleaned up for dinner."

"Can I keep watching TV after?" she asked.

"Yes but only if you promise to pick up your things afterwards."

Prim gave him a warm smile before she jumped off the island and ran out the kitchen. Meanwhile, Gale sat down on one of the stools and let out a loud yawn.

"Your grandma called by the way," he said, "She just wanted to check up on you guys."

Peeta nodded his head as he gave Gale his plate to eat.

"Thanks Gale," said Peeta as he sat on the stool across from him, "thanks for picking up Prim and staying with her."

"Dude, you know that it's no problem. I definitely owe you for covering for me last weekend."

"Yea, you're right, you do," said Peeta as he let out a chuckle.

Gale rolled his eyes and began to scarf down his food, "You know, you'll thank me for this later."

"How exactly would I be thanking you for this?"

"That 'bad boy janitor' look is good for you. Girl's dig guys who get in trouble with the law."

Peeta rolled his eyes at his friends comment.

"It's true," he continued, "show up like that at school and girls will be screaming your name more than they already do."

"Gale, I fail to see how wearing a janitor's uniform is going to help me get laid."

Gale just shrugged his shoulders as he continued to eat, "You never know. Last month, Jonny Woof got caught stealing at the mall and was forced to clean highway 9. Some girls saw him and that same night he got laid like 5 times. I'm telling you, that uniform can do wonders for you."

Peeta just chuckled while he shook his head.

"Your mom know's your sleeping over right?" he asked.

Gale nodded his head, "Yup, and let me be the first to say she wasn't too thrilled about it."

"Why's that?"

"She thinks you're a bad influence on me," he said as he scarfed down the rest of his food.

"Now, why would she think that?" asked Peeta with sarcasm in laced in his voice.

"I don't know, something about you getting caught and making me choose between my family and you. But I told her that I'm gonna be the one to turn your life around. So then I basically fed her a whole mess of bullshit about how I'm obligated to help my best friend."

"If only they knew Gale," said Peeta.

"If only she knew what?"

Peeta sighed as he ran his hand through his hair, "Never mind."

Gale just shrugged his shoulders and started to pick food from Prim's plate.

Just then Prim ran into the room and sat on the stool next to Peeta. She lightly slapped Gale's hand away from her plate as she started to eat.

"Did you wash your hands?" asked Peeta.

Prim nodded her head and gave Gale a dirty look as he took a piece of chicken from her plate.

Peeta just shook his head and leaned back on the stool. Today had been eventful for him. Not only had he been taunted and not to mention hit on by crazy people, but he also managed to find Katniss Everdeen locked away in her cell like room. He never meant to disrupt her from her wall watching, but he can't say he wasn't glad that he did. She seemed lost and cold, not at all like the shy girl from school. In those few seconds that he was staring at the fragile girl, he found himself comparing her to Prim when she was a newborn. She was so small and fragile, almost as if she would break with a simple touch. He remembered that all he really wanted to do was go up to her and hug her. He felt the sudden need to protect her just like he felt the need to protect Prim.

Prim suddenly turned towards her brother and met his eyes. She gave him a big toothy grin as she swallowed some more chicken. In that instance, he swore he saw Katniss' eyes in Prim's. His eyes widened with shock as he looked away from his sister and instead turned towards his friend who had managed to take some more of Prim's food. It was then that he realized that her eyes would now forever be engraved into his mind and would haunt him wherever he went.

But maybe that was a good thing. He couldn't help but be drawn to her like a moth to a light bulb. Maybe Gale was right. Maybe he would thank him for this later.

…oh god…did he just say that?


	8. Don't Say a Word

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the lack of updates :/
> 
> Life is just too complicated at the moment.

Chapter 7: Don’t Say A Word

'Papi!' yelled the eight-year-old girl as she jumped into the arms of her father.

'Mi princesa,' he said as he placed a kiss on her soft cheek.

The man walked further into the cold one bedroom apartment and placed her on a small table. He then ran over to turn the furnace on while his young daughter looked at him with strong admiration in her eyes.

She had lived with her father for as long as she could remember. Her mother died when she was only three years old, leaving her father to care for her himself. She did not remember much about her mother, but her father had said many times that there was a striking resemblance between the two. She had the same olive skin and the same nose and colored hair. Her facial features and were her mothers as well. However her eyes, her piercing silver-like eyes were entirely he fathers.   
Everyday, her father would leave her at school and go to work. She was left to walk home and do her homework alone until he came back late. She didn't complain though. She knew that her father was a very busy man and she loved walking and wondering around in Central Park, located in one of the best cities in the world. She wasn't a lonely child. In fact, she had plenty of friends at school. Sometimes, one of her friends would walk with her and they would have fun and play games with each other like they did at lunch. Other times she would go over her friend's house for an hour or two after school and they would either do homework together or watch endless movies of princess' and knights in shining armor. She would then go home and wait for about an hour or two for her dad to come home. They would make dinner together and watch some television. When it was time for bed, they would both have a small race to see who could get ready the fastest. Of course, he would always let her win but she never complained. After their 'race', he would tuck her into bed and read to her one of her favorite bedtime stories.  
However, the past few days hadn't been the same.

Her father had come home later and more tired than usual. The day before, he had come home out of breath with dirt all over his face. When she asked him about it, he simply said that he had had a bad day at work.

The young girl didn't exactly know what her father did. When people asked her what it was that he did, she would tell them that he was a police officer. After all, he had a gun, and only cops had guns…right?

'Cómo esta mi princesa?' he asked her while he tried to turn the furnace on.

'Very cold,' she replied.

She could faintly hear her father mutter some Spanish curses as he pounded on the furnace to get it to start working. Luckily, after a couple more pounds the furnace finally turned on. He stood up with a proud look on his face and turned to look towards his only daughter.

'There,' he said, 'that should do the trick.'

He suddenly walked over towards the door where he had dropped the bag he had brought with him. He placed it on the table next to his daughter and opened it. He then pulled out a small, Hispanic looking rag doll. It had a yellow dress with colorful stars embodied on it and pig tails that were each tied with a yellow ribbon. It was the most beautiful doll she had ever seen.

'Do you like it?' he asked her.

She quickly nodded her head as she reached out to grab it from him. However, she became confused when he took it out of her reach. She then looked up at him with wide, worried eyes.

'Hold on mija,' he said, 'I will give her to you, but I have to do something first.'

She nodded her head as he put the doll face down on the table and took out a pocketknife that he always carried around with him.

'Papi, no!' she yelled as she watched her father cut the doll open. Tears started to form in her eyes as the white stuffing sprang up from the doll’s lifeless body.

However, she quickly wiped her eyes as she saw him take out a small bag from his pocket. He studied the bag in his hands before he took out its contents. A small gasp escaped from her mouth as three small bright red rubies fell onto his rough palm. He quickly studied them before he put them back in the bag and stuffed the bag in the doll. He then took out a needle with yellow thread attached to it and started to stitch the doll up. Once he was done, he gave the doll to his daughter who turned the doll around to look for the stitches. To her amazement, it was as if her father never opened the doll. The stitches he had made were very precise, making it seem as if he never tore it open.

She looked up at her father and gave him a bright smile as she tightly hugged the doll.

'Thank you Papi,' she said as she tilted her head up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

'You're welcome mija,' he replied as he watched his daughter jump off the table.

She was about to run across the hall to show off her new doll to her neighbor before her father stopped her. He turned her towards him and knelt down to her eye level.

'Before you go and tell the whole world about your new doll, you have to promise me something,' he said.

She nodded her head as her father took the doll from her hands and held it in front of him, studying it closely.

'This really is a beautiful doll,' he said before he looked at her and gave her a toothy grin, 'Promise me that you won't lose it. Take it everywhere you go and don't let it out of your sight.'

Her father handed the doll back to her.

'And please,' he continued as he put his hands on her shoulders, 'don't tell anyone about what you saw me do, alright? It will be our little secret that no one will ever, need to know. You need to swear this on us, on our family'

The young girl nodded her head while looking into her fathers dark and mysterious eyes.  
'Whatever you do mija…don't say a word.'

\---

It had been four days since Peeta started working in the hospital.

It had been four days since he made a fool of himself by falling on his ass.

It had been four days since gray met blue.

Consequently, Peeta found himself longing for those deadly eyes more than anything in the world. He still didn't know why he felt this way, but he knew that if he didn't get rid of it, he would surely punch someone, preferably Gale.

The day after they 'met', Peeta was looking forward to going into her room again to sneak a glance towards the girl. However, he found that the very next day her room number had been removed from the list of rooms he had to deliver sheets to. This made Peeta confused. Why would they take her room off the list? When he saw that the room was no longer on the list, he seriously contemplated sneaking in to see her. However, that thought quickly left his mind when he noticed that there was never a moment when she was not being watched.

Things at home were good so far. His grandma had dropped by two days before to check in on them and to drop off some more food, which Gale had eaten in less than 30 minutes. His parents had called everyday to check in on them as well. Peeta suspected that the only reason they did this was to see if he had fucked up yet, but of course his dad reassured him that they did it because they're worried about him. Peeta of course, was not convinced.  
On his fourth day of working in the hospital, Peeta was mopping the floor near the front desk when he noticed a woman of about 40 years of age with porcelain skin and blonde hair step out of the elevator. She carried a small package in her hands with the words Fragile written all over it. She walked over to the front desk and mumbled something to Effie. Effie then pointed down the corridor before the woman nodded her head and went in the direction she had directed her to.  
That was strange. Visiting hours ended an hour ago.

About twenty minutes later, Peeta looked in the direction that the woman had gone as he picked up his mop and started making his way towards the custodial closet at the end of the hallway. As he passed Dr. Cresta’s office, he couldn't help but notice that the blonde woman was in the room handing the package she brought with her to Dr. Cresta.

Odd.

Patients were usually not allowed to receive fragile things for fear that they may use it to do something regrettable. However, he brushed those thoughts aside as he continued on his way towards the closet. He left the mop leaning against the wall as he grabbed his cart with the fresh sheets and started to make his daily rounds.

\---

"Dr. Cresta?" asked a voice coming from the doorway.

Annie suddenly looked up from her paperwork.

"Yes?" she asked as she saw a blonde haired woman standing in the doorway.

"Hello, I'm Alys," said the woman as she walked into the room and offered Annie her hand, "Katniss’ foster mom."

Annie suddenly stood up and shook Alys’ hand, "Hi," she said, "please, sit down."

Alys gave Dr. Cresta a small smile as she sat in the seat in front of her.

"Thank you so much for coming, "said Annie, "I had my doubts as to whether you were going to come at all."

"I know," sighed Alys, "and I'm sorry about that. It's just that…this thing with Katniss is really hard. I've had many kids come to live with me but never one like her. All of them were troublemakers or just troubled. But not Katniss. She was very shy and innocent looking. She was also very intelligent, more than me. When she first got here, I thought that maybe she would be one to stay. My ex-husband and I got divorced about seven years ago and we were never able to have a child of our own. I think that's probably why I decided to take in kids. So, when she showed up at my doorstep I thought that maybe she could be the one stay and that she could possibly turn into my daughter."

Annie nodded her head in understanding while Alys continued her story, "But then that night happened. She had been acting very jumpy the past two weeks. She’d jump at every door closing or every loud noise and she was constantly lost in her own thoughts. It was like talking to a stone wall sometimes. Then the nightmares came. Every night, she would wake up screaming and crying. There were so many times when I would try to break her out of it but it was useless. She was so lost in her head. Sometimes she’d be so scared to fall asleep. She’d stare at me with her big eyes, begging me to stay awake with her whenever I said goodnight.”

Annie handed her some tissues as tears began to form in her eyes. 

“That day, s-she came home from school again very flustered and very hurried, as if she was running from something. I asked her what was wrong but she just said that she had to go to the bathroom because she didn't have a chance to go at school, even though she usually stayed there about two hours after school let out. So, she just ran upstairs and I started making dinner. A few minutes later, she came downstairs again and started to shut every window and every curtain in the house. When I asked her why she was doing this, she said that it was better to just close them now because we would forget to do it later. Again I just simply shrugged and went back to cooking and she went back upstairs to freshen up for dinner. When everything was ready, I called her but she never answered. I waited for a few more minutes but she never came down stairs. So I went upstairs to go get her. I knocked but there was still no answer so I walked into her room and found it empty. S-So, I-I-I looked towards the b-bathroom and I saw water seeping through the door. I-I went to open it and when I did, I-I couldn't believe m-m-my eyes."  
By this time Alys was sobbing. Annie walked towards her and began to comfort the woman by putting her arm around her.

"I-I s-saw the empty b-bottle of pills and the c-cup s-shattered on the f-floor. T-There was b-blood d-dripping from the t-tub. T-That's when I saw h-her at the b-bottom of the t-tub with b-blood f-flowing out of h-her."

Annie began to stroke Alys’ hair, "Its ok Alys." she said.

"I-I called the a-ambulance. I-I didn't know what else to do. I've never been so scared in my life. Seeing her in that emergency room sacred me so much. I started to blame myself. I started asking myself if it was my fault. Maybe if I just tried a little more or maybe if I was home more then she wouldn't have done this."

"You did the right thing Alys. Katniss is fine now."

"H-How is she?"

Annie sighed as she went to sit back in her chair.

"She's doing better than when she first came in, that's for sure. Would you like to see her?"

"I-I don't think that's a good idea. She probably hates me for leaving her. But I j-just can't do this."

"The only reason she would hate you is because you didn't let her die. You could've just left her in that tub, but you didn't."

"I know," whispered Alys, "I just can't do this. Please understand Dr. Cresta that I'm not a bad person. I truly loved her as my own in that short time she lived with me. 

But, I don't think I could handle the depression and the suicide. It's just not my cup of tea."

She then looked down at her lap and grabbed the package that was resting there, "This is Katniss’." she said as she handed it to Annie, "I found it in her closet before I came."

Dr. Cresta reached across her desk and grabbed it from the woman.

"I think its one of her most valuable possessions. When she first came she placed it right next to her bed and I would watch her play with it when she thought I wasn't looking. But then, for some reason she wrapped it in this box and put it away."

Annie stared at the box before she began to unwrap it. She opened the box and took out the object hidden beneath crumbled pieces of paper. Annie’s eyes widened as she took out a round snow globe. In the snow globe, there was a miniature Statue of Liberty along with a mini empire state building, the MET, the Washington Memorial Arch, and various other famous buildings. At the base of the snow globe was a miniature version of the New York City subway that moved around the globe. Annie suddenly found herself shaking the snow globe and watching as the snow fell over the New York City skyline with amazement.

"Alys," she said as she finished watching the snow fall, "the reason I asked you to come was because we need information about the social worker that assigned   
Katniss to you."

Alys nodded her head as she took out a small card from her purse and handed it to Annie.

"This is his card," she said.

Annie took the card from her and studied it.

Cinna Reed.

She would have to call this Cinna guy right away.

"Dr. Cresta?" she heard Alys say.

Annie looked up at the woman.

"I-I wasn't going to say anything else. B-But, I think there's something you should know."

"What is it?"

"T-The night that Katniss came to the hospital, s-some one broke into my house."

Annie’s eyes widened.

"I-I came home from the hospital and found that my door had been broken into. But, the odd thing was that they didn't take anything that belonged to me. Nothing I owned was touched. But then I went to Katniss’ room and it w-was completely destroyed. There were clothes everywhere and her stuff was on the floor. It was as if they were looking for something."

"Looking for what?"

"I-I don't know. I wasn't going to say anything b-because I-I got this phone call on my phone from an unknown number. The voice said that I couldn't say anything about what I saw and that I should just forget everything that happened. That's why I wouldn't come earlier. B-But then I found this and I just knew that I couldn't stay away any longer."

Annie nodded her head as she looked at the clock and sighed.

"I'm sorry Alys, but I really should get back to work."

Alys nodded her head as she stood up.

"Are you sure you don't want to see her?"

Alys quickly shook her head, "No," she said, "I think its best that I don't. Goodbye Dr. Cresta and thank you for seeing me."

Dr. Cresta rose to shake her hand. Alys turned towards the door and started to walk out. However, she suddenly stopped and turned once again towards Annie.

"Please doctor," she said, "Let Katniss know that I still care for her and that I wish her the best…tell her that I won’t say a word about this, to anyone.” 

Dr. Cresta slowly nodded her head as Alys walked out the door.

\---

After almost an hour of dropping off sheets to 'crazy' people, Peeta was rolling the cart back towards the closet when he noticed an open door that led to an empty conference room. He quickly looked around before he peeked his head into the room. His eyes widened as he stared at a completely transparent wall that let him see into the next room. He walked closer to it and let a small smile form on his lips.

There, in the next room, staring at the wall was the girl whose eyes constantly occupied his mind.

This was his chance. If he ever wanted to see or speak to her again, he would have to sneak into her room now. He wouldn't have to worry about getting caught. Dr. Cresta was talking to that lady and Dr. Odair was no where to be seen.

He quickly walked out of the room and went next door. He looked through the small window and saw that she hadn't moved at all. He slowly opened the door and snuck in. 

This was it, he told himself. He was about to talk to her, the girl who had somehow captivated him with a cold, dead look of her eyes. He suddenly took a deep breath.  
It was now or never.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know the book doesn't specify what race Katniss is, but in my story I decided to make her Hispanic. Here are the Spanish translations:
> 
> Papi: Daddy
> 
> Mi princesa: My princess
> 
> Como esta mi princesa?: How is my princess?
> 
> Mija: A term of endearment that derives from the word 'hija' which means daughter. There is no direct translation, but when 'mija' is used, it may be used in the same way as someone would use '[my] dear'


	9. The Three C's

**Chapter 8: The Three C's**

_It was now or never._

There were several things in life that Peeta wanted to do. Once, when he was bored, he made two long lists. One was a list of things he wanted to do, and the other was a list of things he  _really_  wanted to do. For example, one of the items on the list of things he wanted to do was to finally win a hot dog eating contest against Gale, which he doubts will ever happen seeing as Gale always eats like he's never seen food in his life. Another item on that list is to train for the reality competition show where teens compete against each other to see who can survive in the wilderness (because lets be honest, he wouldn't survive in the wilderness and would probably hurt his leg or something on the first day).

On his list of things that Peeta  _really_  wanted to do were more rebellious and outgoing things like getting a tattoo, go sky diving, learn how to ride a motorcycle, and (much to the dismay of the whole female population at Panem High) shaving his precious blonde locks of curls.

Peeta was obsessed with trying to get everything completed on the list of things he _really_  wanted to do, which was why at this exact moment, he couldn't begin to fathom the thrill and exhilaration he was getting by just standing in the same room with the deadly Katniss Everdeen. Sure, she hadn't seen him and sure she probably didn't hear him, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that Peeta was finally going to get his chance to finally complete the first thing on his list of things he  _really_ wanted to do: Talk to Katniss Everdeen.

He held his breath as he slowly started to make his way towards the girl who sat like a statue. He began to nervously scratch the back of his neck as he walked closer and closer to her. When he noticed that he was mere inches away from her, he stopped and shifted his weight from one leg to another.

' _Get it together Mellark!'_  he thought to himself, _'She's just a suicidal girl who you can't seem to get off your mind.'_

He took another step forward as he silently let out a breath.

' _That's right, just breathe. What was that thing dad told me before the championship match last year? Oh yea, the three C's.'_

He took another step forward.

' _Always stay Calm, Cool, and Collected.'_

He took yet another step forward.

' _Calm, cool, and collected. Calm cool, and collected.'_

By this time, Peeta turned his body so that he had a profile view of the sickly, yet somewhat beautiful girl in front of him. He stepped a little closer and inhaled another deep breath.

' _Calm, cool, and collected.'_

He couldn't take it anymore. He quickly let out the breath that he had been holding in.

_It was now or never._

"HI!" he suddenly yelled.

' _So much for being calm, cool, and collected.'_

He looked at the girl and noticed that she hadn't moved an inch. He let out a sigh before slowly making his way towards her so that he could stand in front of her.

"I-I-mean hi," he said a little more softly, "D-Do you remember me?"

Nothing.

"I'm Peeta, Peeta Mellark. I go to your school."

More nothing.

"We have homeroom and math together. You let me borrow a pencil once…remember?"

"…"

' _This is gonna be harder than I thought.'_

* * *

"Finnick, have you seen Effie?" asked Annie as she walked into the employee break room down the hall from her office.

Finnick closed the  _Sports Illustrated_  magazine he was reading and shook his head.

"No why?" he asked as he got up to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"I can't seem to find her anywhere and I need her to call Katniss' old social worker."

"You mean Jane Doe's social worker?"

Annie rolled her eyes at her friend's comment, "Would you please stop calling her that?"

"Why? Isn't that what you call unidentified people?"

"Yes, but social services gave her that name for a reason and until we find out that reason, we'll keep calling her Katniss."

Finnick rolled his eyes as he sat down again with his cup of coffee in his hands, "Fine."

Annie stifled a laugh as she sat down across from Finnick, "Where have you been anyway?"

"Here."

"The whole day?"

"Well…yea."

"Finnick," she whined, "you were supposed to be watching Katniss!"

"I know but I needed a rest. Watching and waiting for someone to move can take a lot out of you."

Annie shook her head and sat back against the soft couch.

"What about you?" he asked, "What have you been up to?"

"Katniss' foster mom finally came today."

"Really?" he asked as he took a sip from his coffee.

"Yea. I think she was more relieved to see me than I was to see her."

"Yea? And why's that?"

Annie shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. She seemed worried and anxious, like she wanted to just go in and out as fast as possible. Like if she did it any faster then she could leave this whole thing behind her and finally move on."

"You call that being relieved to see you?"

"Well…she kind of told me some stuff. I think it took a lot of weight off of her shoulders."

"What kind of stuff?"

Annia sighed as she looked down at her hands, "I-I can't tell you. I promised her I wouldn't."

"Oh, c'mon Annie! I'm your best friend. You know you could tell me anything."

"I know but I promised her I wouldn't say a word."

"Annie, be reasonable. You promised a woman who abandoned the girl she voluntarily took in and calimed that she loved her as her own?"

Annie arched her eyebrow, "Finnick, were you listening to our conversation?"

"Uh…no"

Annie glared at her friend as he looked at everything else but at her. She clenched her hands into tiny balls and sat up straight, making it seem as if she would hit him in any moment. When he saw the deadly look in her eyes, he finally looked down at his hands and sighed.

"Ok," he said, "I might have heard just a little, but that's it. I swear!"

"Finnick!"

"I know, I know and I'm sorry! But I swear I didn't hear anything about what you don't want to tell me."

"What exactly did you hear?"

Finnick was about to speak when a very flustered looking Effie suddenly entered the room.

"Effie!" exclaimed Annie as she stood up, "I've been looking all over for you! Where were you?"

"I was down on the third floor. Dr. Aurelius asked me to pick up some stuff for him."

"Well, it's a good thing you're here now," said Finnick, "Annie was about to flip a shit on me."

Annie rolled her eyes.

"What would you like me to do?" asked Effie.

"I need you to get in contact with this man," she said as she handed Effie the social workers card.

"Cinna Parker?" asked Effie.

"He was Katniss' social worker. Anyway, her foster mom finally came today and handed me this along with a snow globe."

"A snow globe?" asked Finnick.

"Yea, apparently it was one of Katniss' most valuable possessions."

Finnick and Effie both nodded their heads.

"I'll get right on it," said Effie, just as she was about to walk out the door.

"Speaking of getting right on it," said Finnick, "are you gonna tell us why you came running in here?"

Effie's eyes widened as she looked around the room.

"Have you guys seen Peeta?"

"What do you mean, have we seen him?" asked Annie.

"I umm…I seem to have misplaced him."

"How can you misplace our janitor?" asked Finnick with an amused look at his face.

"I don't know! I was watching him but then Dr. Aurelius wanted me to go down ASAP. So I figured me not watching him for a couple of minutes wouldn't do any harm. I-mean he hasn't been trouble at all so I figured what the hell!"

"Oh God!" said Annie as she rubbed her temples, "I'm going to be  _so_  dead when Dr. Aurelius finds out we just let a possibly dangerous juvenile delinquent run around free in a fucking hospital."

"Now, now, Annie lets stay calm," said Finnick as he stood up and started to pace around the room, "If I were a juvenile delinquent who was forced to work in a hospital as a janitor and who constantly gets unwanted attention from all the patients, where would I be?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

As the three adults stood there silently pondering over where Peeta could be, a sudden bang was heard in the room. All three looked towards the sink on the far wall and noticed that the small shelf above it had completely given away and its contents were now scattered around the sink as well as the floor.

_Bang._

Annie looked back at the other two as a sudden realization came over her.

"Katniss," she said as she quickly walked out of the room with the other two at her heels.

* * *

Peeta took another deep breath as he stood there looking at the girl in front of him. It seemed as if he had been standing there for hours when in fact it was only mere seconds ago that he accidentally yelled at her and made a complete ass of himself when he asked her if she remembered that one time she had so kindly lent him a pencil.

He let a small sigh escape his lips as he sat down on a chair that he assumed Dr. Cresta used during one of their sessions.

"L-Look," he said softly, "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting your wall watching. But I…I just wanted to talk to you. You know, because that's what people do when they have a voice, although some voices should be less heard of like Delly's, hers is kind of annoying."

"…"

Katniss did nothing but stare back at the wall. She gave no hint or indication that she knew he was sitting right in front of her, which he had to admit, saddened him a bit. Nevertheless, he didn't give up…not yet anyway.

"So…" continued Peeta, "do you…like…cheese?"

' _Cheese? Oh, real smooth Mellark.'_

"No? I'm not a big fan of cheese either. Nope, I'm a totally cheese-less person."

' _Where the fuck is all this coming from!'_

"Speaking of cheese…do you like to watch cartoons?"

' _Fuck.'_

"I-I don't exactly know how cheese relates to cartoons…unless you talk about Spongebob because…umm…he's yellow…and cheese is yellow too…most of the time."

' _Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck!'_

"You know…like that stringy cheese is white and the spaghetti cheese is also white…not that I have a preference because…you know…I'm not a very cheesy guy…unless people tell me that I am then I'll stop but other than that I'm not cheesy at all. But, don't take my word for it; I heard cheese was good for you…or something like that."

' _Please just shoot me now!'_

Peeta let out another sigh as he scratched the back of his neck again. He was usually so good with words and was known to charm his way out of anything. He suddenly looked down at his uniform and stood up.

"D-Do you like my uniform?" he asked as he slowly spun around, "it makes me look kind of…umm…rebellious…don't you think?"

The girl didn't even blink.

' _Note to self: Never, ever hang out with Gale again.'_

He finally dropped his head and gave a loud sigh. Who was he kidding? She was obviously not interested. He looked down at her and then towards the door where a huge  _Give Up_  sign flashed in his mind.

"Look," he said, "I'm sorry if I made a total ass of myself. I'll just let you go back to…whatever it is that you're doing."

He began to walk away from her with frustration and embarrassment written all over his face. How could he be so stupid? Of course she wouldn't pay any attention to him.

"You want what they want."

Peeta suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

' _Could it be?'_

He slowly turned back around to face the girls back.

"W-What did you say?" he asked as he made his way back to her.

"You want what they want" the soft, raspy and somewhat deadly voice said again.

Peeta's eyes widened as she suddenly turned back to look at him. There they were again, those dead gray eyes that haunted Peeta everywhere he went. He quickly took a deep breath as he walked a few inches closer to her, never once breaking eye contact.

"W-What who wants?" asked Peeta.

She slowly turned her head to look at the transparent wall as if she were looking for something. He looked towards the wall and realized what she was talking about.

"N-No. They just want to make sure you're ok."

She looked back at him as he felt his breath get caught in his throat.

"L-Look," he began as he walked over to the wall and started knocking on it, "there's no one there right now."

Katniss did nothing but shake her head, "You want what they want."

"What who wants?" he asked again.

She was about to open her mouth to speak again when they suddenly heard the door open with a loud bang against the wall. They both suddenly looked towards the door and saw a flustered and somewhat relieved looking Effie, an amused Dr. Odair, and a very angry and deadly looking Dr. Cresta.

' _Shit.'_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the EXTREMELY long wait. Lets hope this year gives me more time to fiish all the stories I have planned for this fandom :)


	10. Nothing's Gonna Change My World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early surprise for you guys! Enjoy!

**Chapter 9: Nothing's Gonna Change My World**

"Peeta, I'm going to give you one minute to explain what the hell you were doing in there," said a very frightening Dr. Cresta as she stood in front of Peeta with her hands on her hips.

Peeta did nothing but sigh and look down at the floor. Everything was going so well. Sure, he may have made a complete idiot out of himself  _again_ , and sure, he was probably going to have to answer to his probation officer, or even worse, his dad. However, none of that mattered now. All that mattered was that she spoke to him.

Katniss Everdeen… _the_  Katniss Everdeen had finally spoken to no one other than him. Although a normal teen in trouble would probably be shitting in his pants right about now at the thought of being sent to a juvenile detention center, Peeta Mellark couldn't help but smile at the fact that she had spoken to him.

He remembered the deadly, somewhat sweet melodic voice. To him, it sounded like freshly picked honey that one would not be able to get enough of. It was a bit scratchy from all those days of not talking, but still sweet. He wanted to hear that voice again.

No.

He  _needed_  to hear that voice again. 

However, he was disappointed when he heard people run through the door. Once Effie, Dr. Odair, and Dr. Cresta found him in Katniss' room, he noticed that the young girl quickly turned around and faced the wall as if nothing had happened. He then felt himself being dragged away by Dr. Cresta and Dr. Odair into the next room where he had been getting lectured for the past 15 minutes.

"Well?" she asked him, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Peeta looked up at the woman with a smile plastered on his face, "She spoke to me."

This clearly caught Annie by surprise as she looked over at the other adults who were still in the room.

"S-She spoke to you?" she asked in a much calmer voice.

"Yea." he said as he looked over at the transparent wall where he could clearly see Katniss sitting, facing the wall. However, his smile was suddenly wiped off his face as a look of confusion replaced it.

The adults quickly noticed this and looked towards Katniss' room.

"What the hell?" asked Effie as she turned towards the transparent wall as well.

Katniss, who had shown no sign of life since the moment Peeta fell on his ass four days ago, was suddenly moving her right hand…well…more like her right index finger. She was making sharp swift movements with her finger as if she was writing something in the air while slightly mouthing words no human ear would ever hear.

"What is she doing?" asked Finnick as he stared at the girl in the next room.

"I-I don't know," said Annie as she turned to look at Peeta.

Peeta's eyes widened as he realized all eyes were on him.

"D-Don't look at me!" he said, "She was fine when I was in there."

"She was fine before  _you_  went in there!" yelled Annie.

"Ah-hem," Finnick cleared his throat before Annie could physically hurt the young boy.

Annie looked at her friend, "What?"

"Annie, can I talk to you outside? Please?"

Annie sighed and rolled her eyes as she walked out of the room with Finnick following closely behind her.

Once she was outside, she turned towards her friend.

"What?" she asked, "What the fuck is so important that you can't wait until after I tear him apart?"

Finnick rolled his eyes.

"Look," he began, "I know that this is hard for you to grasp, but I think its time that we test out our little theory."

"What theory?"

"Remember what we talked about a couple days ago?"

Annie tilted her head a bit as if to think about the question he asked her. When nothing came to her mind, she shook her head.

"Remember how I suggested that Peeta might be an asset in helping us with Katniss?"

Annie's eyes suddenly widened as the memory replayed in her head. Yes, she did indeed remember that, but she never actually considered the fact that that theory would become a reality.

"I think that now's the time to test it out," continued Finnick as he looked through the small window on Katniss' door, "I-mean, think about all the things Peeta could get her to say in one day. Then we could finally help her."

"I thought that we decided she was psychotically depressed."

"No,  _you_  decided she was psychotically depressed. I still think there's more to her than meets the eye."

Annie sighed as she too looked through the window on Katniss' door. She inhaled a quick breath as she noticed that Katniss was no longer facing the wall. She was now lying on her back on the bed while continuing to make the sudden swift movements with her finger.

"C'mon Annie," whispered Finnick in her ear, sending a small trail of goose bumps down her neck, "Give the boy a chance."

Annie was about to speak when the sound of her pager started to go off. She reached into her white coat pocket and got her pager. It was from Dr. Aurelius. She let out a small groan as she walked away from the door towards her office with Finnick behind her.

"Annie, you can't just ignore me like this," he said while they both stepped into her office.

She sat down at her desk as she picked up the phone and dialed Dr. Aurelius' number.

"Annie," said Finnick before she held a finger up to him signaling him to be quiet.

"Hello Dr. Aurelius, its Dr. Cresta," she said into the mouthpiece.

Finnick crossed his arms as he patiently waited for her to get off the phone.

"Yes," said Annie, "I understand…no, it wont be a problem…you too…bye."

Annie hung up the phone and looked up at Finnick.

"Dr. Aurelius is leaving to attend a conference in Florida early tomorrow morning and he wants me to be in charge while he's gone."

Finnick smirked as he sat in front of Annie.

"What's this?" he asked as he grabbed a package sitting on her desk. He looked inside and took out the snow globe that he assumed was the one Annie had mentioned back in the break room.

There was a sudden knock at the door. Both adults turned to see Peeta standing in the doorway.

"Effie wanted me to let you guys know that she contacted Cinna Parker and it turns out that he's in the area, so he'll be stopping by any minute now," he said.

Annie nodded her head as she stood. She was about to speak when Peeta suddenly cut her off.

"Dr. Cresta," he began, "please don't be mad. I really am sorry about what I did. I said that I wouldn't talk or get involved with any of the patients and I went against my word. I completely understand if you want to call my probation officer or even worse, my dad. Just know that…I…I needed to talk to her. I don't know why but…ever since I saw her eyes…I just can't seem to get them out of my head. I…I want to help her. I _need_  to help her."

Finnick looked between Peeta and Annie. He stood and handed Annie the snow globe.

"You know what to do," he whispered as he left the office.

Annie sighed and looked at the boy in front of her.

"L-Look Peeta," she began in a soft voice, "I'm prepared to give you an offer which I hope you won't refuse."

Peeta arched his eyebrow as confusion spread across his face.

"I'm willing to let you slip by and not call your probation officer or your father."

Peeta's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Was she serious?

"I'm willing to let this all slip, completely erase your record, and finish your hours earlier only if you agree to help us."

"W-What do you have in mind?" asked Peeta nervously. 

"We want you to help us with Katniss. Obviously, we haven't been able to get through to her. It seems like you're the only one she'll pay attention to around here."

"So, what exactly is it that you want me to do?"

Annie walked around her desk and stood in front of him, "We want you to talk to her."

"Talk to her?"

Annie nodded her head as she suddenly noticed that she still held on to the snow globe. She gently shook it and watched as the snowflakes gently fell over the entire city.

"B-But, why me?"

"Like I said, you're the only one she pays attention to. You're the only one who can actually get a reaction out of her. Why? I have no idea. But for some reason, she won't listen to anyone but you. We just need you to talk to her and see if you can get her to open up. Maybe she'll let us in on some secrets about her past. So, what do you say?" she said as she gently spun the subway train around the base of the globe.

Peeta looked at Dr. Cresta to look for any sign that she could be bluffing. When he saw that she was giving him a truly genuine offer, his mind went into overdrive.

Not only would his record be completely erased, but he would be able to talk to Katniss. He would actually be able to have real conversations with her and get to know the  _real_ Katniss. How could he possibly say no?

"If I help you…you can guarantee that my record will be clean and that I can finish these hours faster?"

Annie once again nodded her head.

Peeta gave her a grin, "Alright," he said, "I'll do it."

* * *

Peeta slowly walked into Katniss' room while she laid on the bed, never ceasing to move her index finger in the air. He turned towards the two way mirror on the wall and let out a deep breath as he stared at his own reflection. Although he could not see Dr. Cresta or Dr. Odair, he knew they were there, watching and listening to everything that went on in the room.

Before he had entered the room, he was stripped of any sharp objects that could be harmful to Katniss. Although, he did get a chance to check his watch before they took it away from him and made a mental note that it was barely noon, which meant he had two more hours until he could go home. However, it also meant that he had two hours with Katniss. It meant two hours with the girl he could not get out of his mind. Once he realized this, the nerves he had earlier suddenly returned.

What was he thinking? Why the hell did he agree to do this? How the hell was he supposed to do this without making an ass of himself? He ran his hand through his hair as he thought about what he was about to do.

"You know they can see you right?" he heard the deadly melodic voice ask.

Peeta suddenly turned around and stared at the girl who was now sprawled all over the bed.

"What?" he said in a somewhat squeaky voice.

He quickly covered his mouth with his hand.

' _Cool, calm, and collected…yea, right.'_

"I…uh…I-mean, what?" he said in a voice somewhat deeper than his normal one.

"They can hear you too," she said as she stopped 'writing' in the air and looked at him.

"Yeah?" he asked as he walked a little closer to her, their eyes never leaving each other's.

"Yea. Those doctors think I must be some kind of dumb ass or something. They think I don't know."

She suddenly turned back to stare at the ceiling. Peeta tried not to let the disappointment show on his face when her eyes left his. He grabbed the chair he sat in earlier that day and sat next to her bed.

"You're right." he said, "They do think you don't know. But I for one happen to know that you are in fact not the dumb ass that they think you are."

"But you  _don't_  know me," she said as she began to stretch the top part of her body. 

She arched her back off the bed and let out a soft moan as she felt her muscles relax. That moan, along with the sight of her small breasts rising above her body was enough to make Peeta stir below. She noticed him eyeing her breast and smirked.

Embarrassed that he had been caught looking, he looked down at the floor, "N-No," he said bash fully, "But I would like to."

"I'm sure you really want to," she whispered, "in more ways than one."

Their eyes met once again. This time, there were something on her eyes that wasn't there before. Peeta wondered if she could feel the same thing he felt whenever they looked at each other, whenever silver met blue.

"You never seemed to care before.," she said as she suddenly sat up, breaking the spell they had been under, "You think I don't know who you are? Why, you're the infamous Peeta Mellark. You walk around the whole school like you're the shit. You think everyone should bow down to you every time you speak."

Peeta suddenly looked away as he tried to hide the guilt on his face. Was he really that shallow?

"You think you're  _so_  much better than everyone else," she continued in a small somewhat threatening voice, "Well guess what? Nobody gives a shit. Five, ten, maybe even twenty years from now, no one will care about you because they'll be moving on to the next best thing. Fuck, you'll be lucky enough if they even remember your name."

She suddenly let out a small giggle as she stretched out her arms and laid back on the bed.

"So why the fuck would you suddenly want to know me? Why the fuck would you suddenly care? Unless, they offered you something."

Peeta looked down at his hands, suddenly finding them more interesting than anything else in the room.

"That's it isn't it?" she exclaimed as she suddenly sat up, "They offered you something and your trying to accept their offer by redeeming yourself."

"Redeeming myself?"

"Yea, by actually pretending like you want to get to know me," she let out laugh, "oh, this is priceless."

A small smirk appeared on his lips, "Well I'll tell you one thing. You're easily the smartest person I know."

She shrugged her shoulders and matched his smirk with her own, "What can I say? I can't go to twenty different schools and not expect to learn something."

Peeta arched his eyebrow.

"Twenty different schools? That must've been quite the experience."

She shrugged once more and fell back on the bed. She let out a deep breath and looked at the ceiling. She then began to hum softy before she suddenly began to sing,

" _Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe."_

Peeta was suddenly rendered speechless as he heard her voice flow out like sweet and endless honey. He couldn't help but think that she had the voice of an angel; a voice that he swore even the birds would stop to listen to. He looked down at her and was shocked to see her staring back.

" _Pools of sorrow waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind, possessing and caressing me."_

She began to arch her back again and began to rub her hands sensually up her body, ending and the sides of her breast, all the while never breaking eye contact. He found himself mesmerized by her voice as well as her eyes and couldn't help but stare at her frail body. Did she know what she was doing to him?

" _Jai Guru De Va Om nothing's gonna change my world, nothing's gonna change my world."_

She unexpectedly sat up again, " _Nothing's gonna change my world_ …not even you Peeta Mellark."

* * *

Annie watched the scene between Peeta and Katniss intently. The words Katniss spoke surprised Annie, for she never knew the young girl held that much anger and annoyance towards Peeta or anybody for that matter. But then again, she never really heard the girl speak before.

There was a knock on the door just as Katniss began to sing. Annie looked towards the doorway as it opened and revealed Effie with a few papers in her hands.

"What is it Effie?" asked Annie.

Effie looked towards the window and gave a small smile, "She has a beautiful voice."

Annie nodded her head. Indeed, Katniss did have a beautiful voice. Although it was scratchy and dry from all her days of not speaking to anyone, Annie couldn't help but to think that Katniss had a beautiful and somewhat mesmorizing singing voice.

Effie then looked back at Annie, a look of nervousness evident on her face.

"I-I have something for you."

Annie stood up and walked towards the wall where buttons for the intercom were. Silence suddenly filled the room as pushed the  _off_  button and motioned for Effie to continue.

Annie placed the papers on the table as Katniss' voice disappeared from the room.

"I know that I told you that Cinna Parker said he would come…but…it turns out that he had an appointment on the other side of town. So, he sent his assistant to come and drop these off."

"What is it?" she asked as she looked towards Peeta and Katniss to see if things were still going smoothly.

"It's something I think you should see."

"Should I be worried?" asked Annie as she reached for the papers, "The last time you had something to show me, I found out that Katniss doesn't exist."

She gave a nervous laugh as she started to look through them. However, her smile was quickly wiped off as confusion spread throughout her face.

"What's all of this?" she asked as she read over all the papers, "Bristel, Victoria, Rory, Bonnie, Venia, Cecilia, Posy…w-who are all these people?"

"W-Well that's just it," said Effie as she turned towards Katniss' room, "they're all the same person."

Annie looked towards the same direction that Effie did. Katniss was still lying on the bed as she once again moved her finger while Peeta was talking to her. That was when it hit her.

"It can't be." She said as she walked closer to the wall.

"But it is." said Effie, "You are looking at Bristel, Victoria, Rory, Bonnie, Venia, Cecilia, Posy, Katniss Everdeen."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Katniss sings is called Across the Universe by The Beatles, arguably one of the best bands to ever walk the earth. The lyrics are credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A link to the song can be found on my tumblr blossomonatree91 . tumblr(.com) under the Don't Say A Word link on my page along with a picture of Katniss's snow globe and doll. I will be posting other links that I will use for my story in the future under this link.
> 
> Thanks guys :)


	11. You Want What They Want

**Chapter 10: You Want What They Want**

_"You are looking at Bristel, Victoria, Rory, Bonnie, Venia, Cecilia, Posy, Katniss Everdeen."_

"I-I can't believe it…I don't believe it," said Annie as she  sat down and began to go over each page.

"Bristel, age 14, Portland Oregon…Victoria, age 15, Seattle Washington…Rory, age 15, Boston Massachusetts…Bonnie, age 16, Phoenix Arizona…Venia age 16, San Diego California…Ceclia, age 16, Kansas City, Missouri…Posy, age 17, San Antonio Texas…Katniss Everdeen, age 17, Fresno California…t-this doesn't make sense."

"According to this, Katniss, or whoever she is, has had seven different identities. They're all from different cities, in different states—put in each place by her case worker," said Effie.

"B-But why?" asked Annie as she studied each paper carefully.

Effie shrugged her shoulders.

Annie continued to read through the papers carefully. Something was wrong. She could sense it. Every medical record in that folder was almost an exact replica of the one she had for the supposed Katniss Everdeen. There were no indications that she had ever been sick in her life and no family history.

"I bet if I research these names nothing would come up," she said as Effie watched the two teens in the next room.

"I can do that for you if you'd like," said Effie.

Annie nodded her head as she handed the papers over to Effie who in turn took the papers from her and walked out the room.

How can this happen? How can this be? How can the attempted suicide of this seventeen-year-old girl become more complicated everyday?

This  _was_  not supposed to happen. This  _is_  not supposed to happen. No, Annie was supposed to sit down and talk to Katniss, not Peeta. She was supposed figure out what was wrong with her. Instead, she was discovering that Katniss Everdeen had more than five identities while she was in one room and Peeta was getting Katniss to talk in the next (granted it was mostly her yelling at him and drifting off into songs, but they'll take what they can get). 

She heaved a loud sigh as she looked towards Katniss' room.

"Katniss Everdeen," whispered Annie, "Who are you?"

* * *

"…and then we played at the park and Rue's mom took us shopping and she bought us each a princess coloring book!" exclaimed Primrose as she sat on the island in the middle of the kitchen.

Peeta had arrived home an hour ago after he finished his first session with Katniss. To his disappointment, after she had finished her song, she quickly shut the whole world out and sprawled herself over her bed while moving around her finger. Peeta had tried to talk to her countless times for the last two hours of his work day. He tried to ask her about the school year so far and about her plans for the future…or in her case…if she intended to have a future.

Once Dr. Cresta had said time was up, he slowly stood up and said bye to Katniss, who had ignored him the whole time. He then drove home and picked up Prim from his neighbors house since Gale had left him a message saying that something came up and he wouldn't be able to pick her up. They were both now in the kitchen where Peeta was heating up some leftover pizza from the night before while listening to his sister tell him about her day.

"That was very nice of Rue's mom. Did you thank her?"

Prim nodded her head as her brother took the heated pieces of pizza and placed them on a plate.

"Then we were coloring and drawing all day until you came to pick me up. But I don't care. I like being here with you," she said while giving him the most innocent smile he had ever seen.

Peeta returned the smile; "I like spending time with you too."

He gave her a piece of pizza as she suddenly gasped.

"I almost forgot!" she exclaimed as she jumped off the island and ran out of the kitchen. She came back in less than a minute with a piece of paper behind her back.

"What do you have there?" he asked.

She quickly took the paper from behind her back and outstretched her arms towards Peeta.

"I made this for you."

He gave her a genuine smile as he gladly accepted his gift. It was a picture that she had masterfully drawn. She had drawn a stick figure version of them outside in a yard full of flowers while they were flying what seemed to be a kite. Above the stick figures were arrows pointing down to each figure with the words  _Peeta_  and  _Me_.

"Prim," he said as he suddenly scooped her up in his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead,"this is the best gift anyone's ever given me."

Prim giggled as she put her arms around her brother. Peeta was about to set her down on one of their bar stools just as the door bell rang.

"I wonder who that could be?" asked Peeta as he walked towards the front door while he carried Prim against his hip.

He opened the door and revealed Gale with crutches under his armpits and a cast on his right leg.

"Don't ask," said Gale as Peeta stood aside to let his best friend in.

"Dude, you know I'm still gonna ask."

Peeta followed Gale into the kitchen where he sat down at the table and put his crutches aside.

"Peeta, why does Gale have a rock on his leg?" asked Prim.

"I don't know. Why  _does_  Gale have a rock on his leg?" asked Peeta as he sat Prim on the island.

He looked over at his best friend who reached over and grabbed Peeta's pizza from the plate.

He crossed his arms and stood in front of Gale, waiting for an explanation. Gale looked up at his friend while he chewed.

"What?" he asked.

Peeta rolled his eyes, "You know exactly what, so spill."

"I-It's kind of embarrassing."

"More embarrassing than the time Thom pantsed you in front of Glimmer?"

Gale continued to eat the pizza as he thought about it.

He finally shook his head.

"No, but it's certainly close."

Gale gave a loud sigh as Peeta leaned against the island.

"I spent the night at Madge's house."

Peeta arched his eyebrow, "Doing what?"

"Y-You know, w-we were just fucking around."

Peeta gave Gale an amused look.

"Peeta," said Prim, "what does fucking mean?"

Peeta's eyes widened as he turned towards Prim. He had completely forgotten that she was sitting on the island.

"Umm," he began, "I-It's a very, very bad word that you can never say-especially in front of mom and dad."

Prim nodded her head as Peeta walked over to the table and picked up her plate before Gale could get to it.

"Here," he said, "why don't you take your pizza and eat it while watching T.V.?"

"But we're not allowed to eat in the living room."

"What mom and dad don't know won't hurt them. It'll be our little secret."

Prim nodded her head as she jumped off the island, took the pizza and ran into the living room.

"Gale you idiot, watch your language in front of Prim!" he yelled once he heard Prim turn the T.V. on.

"I'm sorry." He said as he finished eating the crust, "Now as I was saying, I spent the night at Madge's because we were…you know. Her parents were going into the city on business or something so she called me over to see if I wanted to hang out. Then one thing led to another and next thing I know its eight in the morning and Madge's hitting my head with a pillow yelling at me to get up. Turns out her parents were gonna show up earlier than expected and they called to say that they were 10 minutes away. So I jumped out of her bed and I tried to put my clothes on quickly. I didn't want to get caught because we all know that Senator Undersee would flip a shit if he saw me anywhere near her."

"Could you blame him? He caught you guys making out at the father-daughter dance."

"Why cant people just get over that?"

"You guys were practically naked in a janitors closet!"

"Ok…I'll admit…not the smartest decision, but still. That doesn't mean he can send my mom all those brochures for military school in the middle of nowhere."

"Gale, he's a senator who might very well run for office one day. He can do whatever the fuck he wants."

Gale rolled his eyes, "As I was saying, I was in a hurry to get out so I was trying to put my pants on while I was running down the stairs. Big mistake. I tripped over them and fell down the stairs. I guess I landed wrong. I just heard a huge crack and my leg started hurting me like a bitch. Madge said we didn't have any time so she practically dragged me out back. I literally had to crawl all the way home and told my mom I fell off of my skateboard."

"Gale you don't  _own_  a skateboard. You don't even know  _how_  to skateboard."

"I know, but my mom was so worried about her 'baby' that she just rushed me to the hospital. I thought about going up to see you, but my mom said it wasn't proper for me to associate with anarchists."

"Since when does she think I'm an anarchist?"

"Since you spent two hours in a jail cell."

Peeta rolled his eyes.

"So now, I'm in this fucking cast until God knows when." he sighed, "There goes the rest of my vacation."

Peeta shrugged his shoulders.

Not only did he feel bad that Gale broke his leg but he was somewhat relieved that Mrs. Hawthorne did not let Gale visit him. If it were any other day, Peeta would have been slightly bummed that his best friend didn't visit. But not today. Today was one of the most life changing days of his life.

Today, he spoke to Katniss Everdeen, the person who constantly occupied his mind. He didn't know why though. He figured it was because he was still guilty. But something inside him told him otherwise.

* * *

The next morning, Peeta found himself in the employee lounge filling out some papers for Dr. Cresta. As part of their agreement, Dr. Cresta wanted a daily report on Katniss' moods and behavior. This was Peeta's least favorite part since winter vacation was supposed to be a break from writing any sort of papers…however the same could be said about waking up ridiculously early, working, cooking, cleaning, and so forth.

While Peeta was trying to select a number between one and ten to describe Katniss' mood from the day before, Dr. Odair walked into the room with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Good morning Peeta," he said as he walked over to the small kitchen counter in the room.

"Morning Dr. Odair," the younger man replied.

"Stop with the formalities Peeta," said Finnick with a wave of his hand, "please, call me Finnick, Dr. Odair is my father—not a very good one I might add."

"Okay, Finnick," said Peeta with a small smile.

As he went back to rating Katniss in his paperwork Peeta felt the sudden presence of someone behind him. He suddenly looked up and was startled to find Finnick standing over him, practically reading over his shoulder.

"What are you doing there?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm writing up the report of Katniss' progress," explained Peeta, "Dr. Cresta wants me to turn one in everyday but I kind of forgot to do it yesterday."

"Ah yes," said Finnick, "Katniss Everdeen, ever the enigma. She almost makes you question whether she's crazy or just really, really good at hiding something."

"Hiding?" asked Peeta, "You think she's hiding something and that's why she tried to kill herself?"

Finnick shrugged as he walked back towards the kitchen counter, "It's definitely one possibility, don't you think?"

"I uh…I don't know what to think," said Peeta. Up until this point he just believed that Katniss Everdeen was going through some kind of depressing mid life crisis.

"Well think about it," said Finnick as he began to look for something in one of the cupboards, "Why else would someone come in with sliced wrists and a bunch of drugs in their system. Most of the time it's just a cry for help. Teens like her never cut deep enough, or take the right amount of drugs. They also don't go through the extra trouble of trying to drown themselves. They hurt themselves just enough to grab peoples attention, but not enough to actually kill themselves."

"But you don't think that's the case here," said Peeta.

Finnick once again shrugged his shoulder as he finally found what he was looking for and turned to lean back on the counter.

"She knew what to do and how to do it, almost as if she's done this once or twice before," said Finnick.

Peeta was confused. He couldn't fathom the idea of Katniss hiding anything so big that she'd try to die for it let alone twice. She's mentioned something about someone wanting something, but he didn't think anything of it.

"Secrets make the world go round," he heard Finnick say from his spot at the counter.

"I thought that's what they say about money?" asked Peeta.

"Oh no, don't get me wrong, money is an important factor," said Finnick, "but secrets—were the reason money was created. You see Peeta, money is just an agreement by everyone of us to be used as a medium of exchange. If you want to use a rock as your medium of exchange, then you can call that rock money. But before any kind of exchange was created, people had to have some sort of hold over each other; something to be held over as payment to create some sort of trust between two people. If I wanted to buy a horse from Annie and I didn't have any money, she would still want payment right? She wouldn't want to be cheated. So instead of offering her nothing, I offer her a secret—something no one else will know, something that will ruin me if anyone found out."

"But…but why would you offer her a secret that could potentially ruin you? Why give her that power?" asked a very confused Peeta.

"To pay a debt, to settle a score."

None of this made any sense. Why would anyone offer harmful information about themselves as a bargaining tool? If someone had a harmful secret, wouldn't it be easier to just keep it to themselves? Better yet, why would Katniss be hiding something so harmful that she would literally die for it? Katniss did always keep to herself. He could count the number of people she interacted with at school on just one hand. It could be that she was just being shy. Or it could be that she was too scared to let anyone close because she was afraid someone would find out about something harmful. If Katniss was hiding something, then maybe she tried to hide it the best way she knew how.

She ran.

"Are you saying that Katniss has tried to kill herself multiple times because she has a debt to pay that she doesn't want to pay?" asked Peeta.

"It is definitely one possibility, no?" asked Finnick as he opened the small package he grabbed from the cupboard.

If it wasn't a possibility before, then it definitely is now. But still he wasn't all too sure about this theory, or comfortable for that manner.

"But…why are you telling me this? Dr. Cresta said that I couldn't talk about Katniss with anyone else," said Peeta.

"Peeta, there will be times when you find that sometimes you just have to bend the rules. You have to offer up something in order to get something in return," said Finnick as he smirked at Peeta, "You see, I can get in very big trouble for offering confidential information to someone who has no business knowing it. But I do it so that one day that person will give me something in return."

Realization soon dawned on Peeta. This wasn't just a normal conversation between two people. This was an offer—a trade. A secret kept for a secret to be found out. The question on his mind was this: should he take the bait? And what secret could Dr. Odair be after?

"But how do you know that they wont betray you?" asked Peeta, "How do you know they'll agree to offer you something in return for what you offered them?"

"Trust," said Finnick, "you trust that they live up to their character. You see, I'll admit that when it comes to fun and games I can be a dishonest person. Yes I've cheated on poker games and on past relationships and I've definitely shared some information that I was not supposed to. But a dishonest person you can always trust to be dishonest. It's the honest ones you have to worry about because you never know when they're going to do something stupid. Everyone has skeletons that can be dug up, weaknesses that no one is supposed to know about. Even you.

Peeta felt his throat tighten and took a big gulp. Did Dr. Odair just insinuate that he has something over Peeta if he did not play into his game? He's only known him for a couple of days and he could count the number of conversations they've had with one hand. What could he possible have over him?

"But what about Dr Cresta?" asked Peeta, "wont she be furious if she finds out what you're telling me?"

"What Annie doesn't know wont kill her," said Finnick with a smug look on his face, "It'll be our little secret. Why, I myself haven't dealt in anything as common as money for years"

"Then how do you get paid for your work?" asked Peeta hesitantly.

"With secrets," replied Finnick with a wry smile as he extended the contents from the package in his hand, "Sugar cube?"

* * *

"So, what's your favorite color?"

"…"

"Let me guess, its yellow isn't it?"

"…"

"No? Is it because you don't like cheese?"

"…"

"Because remember, I don't like cheese either."

"…"

Peeta gave a loud sigh. He had been trying to get Katniss to talk for the last two hours. However, since he had walked into the room, she had seemed completely unfazed by his presence, which he had to admit made him a bit upset. Not only was he still thinking about the curious offer made to him by Dr. Odair, but he was also frustrated at the fact that he couldn't get her to talk to him again.

She was currently lying upside down on her bed while he sat in front of her. Her dead eyes stared at the wall behind him. Her long and dark stringy hair fell around her head and touched the floor. Her breasts, which he noticed were a fair size for a petite girl, were slowly moving up and down in a slow rhythm as she took small breaths. Her small, clammy hands tightly gripped her sheets as if to stop her self from falling headfirst on the tiled floor.

Although the sight of her would have been considered weird and disturbing, Peeta couldn't help but think that she looked like the most beautiful girl in the world.

"What about your favorite movie?"

"…"

"Song?"

"…"

"Food?"

"…"

"Ice cream?"

"…"

"Anything?"

"…"

"Are you ever gonna say something instead of staring at the stupid wall behind me?" he asked with frustration laced onto his voice.

"Are you ever gonna stop pretending that you actually care?"

The comment caught Peeta off guard. He didn't expect her to respond since it almost felt like he was the only one in the room.

"Well, that's a start," he said as she slowly sat up.

"You didn't answer my question," she said as she stretched her arms above her head. She then stood up and walked towards the front of the bed where she stood with her legs apart. She bent down until her hands touched the ground and moved from the middle to each of her legs.

"I-I do care," he said.

"You stuttered."

"What's your point?"

"If you did care, then you wouldn't have stuttered."

"Oh," said Peeta quietly as he mentally cursed himself.

He watched her stretch her legs and then jump up and down a few times as if she was getting ready to go for a jog.

"Can I ask you what you're doing?"

"You just did."

Peeta rolled his eyes, "So, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm stretching and warming up. I'm shocked you didn't know, aren't you like a football god or something like that?"

"I know that, but  _why_  are you doing that?"

She suddenly stopped and looked over her shoulder at him with a somewhat seductive smirk on her face, "Wouldn't you like to know."

She then bent over to stretch her legs again as small giggles left her mouth.

"You are unlike any other girl, you know that right?"

"Why? Because I tried to kill myself?"

Peeta's eyes widened at her comment. He had never expected her to bring that up.

When she didn't hear him respond, she stood up from her stretching position and slowly walked over and stood in front of him.

"What?" she asked, "You've never stayed so quiet before."

She slowly got closer to him and gently passed her fingers over his golden locks of hair. Her touch alone was almost enough to make Peeta roll his head back in pleasure. 

"Let me guess, you've never been this close to a crazy person before," she whispered before she slowly bent down to his eye level and moved her face closer to his, "Don't worry, I wont bite."

He felt the blood in his cheeks rise as her face got closer to his. Their eyes never left each others. He so desperately wanted to kiss her slightly chapped lips but decided against it. He forced himself to look away from her eyes and caught site of her deeply scared wrist. Memories of his earlier conversation with Dr. Odair  returned. She knew exactly where to cut and how deep. He looked closer and saw that behind her fresh deep scars were fragments of older ones that had been trying to heal. He reached for her wrist and gently touched the wounds that she had so desperately tried to kill herself with.

He felt her whole body tense up. He looked back at her eyes and noticed that the confidence she had seconds before was now gone and instead, he saw a scared and fragile young girl. She quickly pushed herself away from him and walked over to the wall behind him. She then touched the wall with her hands as if she was savoring the cool feel of the tile. Although she tried to hide it, her body started shaking as she started to scratch at the wall in front of her.

"Why are you trying to torture me?" she asked, barely above a whisper.

Peeta's eyes widened at her question. Why would she think that?

"I'm not trying to torture you."

"Yes you are!" she exclaimed as she suddenly turned to face him once again. Her eyes had turned red and slightly puffy and tears began falling down her pale cheeks.

"Katniss-"

"STOP IT! JUST STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" she yelled.

Peeta suddenly stood up, "No, Katniss, I'm not trying to do anything to you. I want to help you," he said calmly.

"STOP TRYING TO MESS WITH MY MIND!"

"Katniss, please listen to me. I wanna help you."

"NO YOU 'RE NOT! YOU'RE TRYING TO GET INTO MY HEAD AND I WANT YOU TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!" she yelled as she pointed to her head.

"Why won't you let me in?"

"Why?" she asked, her voice returning to its normal dead tone, "You wanna know why?"

Peeta gently nodded his head.

She suddenly looked towards the one way mirror in her room. Her vision was blurred with tears as she walked closer to it. She suddenly looked back at him.

"You want what they want," she whispered.

"No, Katniss please…let me help you," he said in a gentle voice.

However, Katniss shook her head as she pointed to the transparent wall, "YOU WANT WHAT THEY WANT!"

"Katniss who is they?"

"YOU WANT WHAT THEY WANT!"

"Katniss please just talk to me, let me help."

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!" she yelled as she completely collapsed on the floor.

He suddenly ran over to her in an attempt to help her up. However, she began to back away until she backed herself into the corner of the room. She quickly hugged her legs tightly to her chest and began to rock herself back and forth.

"Katniss-"

"GET OUT!"

There was a sudden knock on the door, which was the signal for Peeta to get out. He slowly walked towards the door and saw Dr. Cresta's eyes telling him to leave the room. He let out a loud sigh as he looked back at the broken girl in the corner.

"I-I'm gonna help you Katniss. Someway, somehow, you're gonna let me in," he whispered as he left the room, leaving her in her small bubble of darkness.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed :)
> 
> P.S. Can you guys spot a quote from another blockbuster movie? I'll give you a hint, the person who says it is from a district that is related to the theme of the movie ;)


	12. Blackbird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the severely long wait. I hope this can make up for it.
> 
> Warning: Mildly disturbing sexual content.

" _You want what they want."_

 

The words seemed to bounce around every corner in Peeta's mind. The words that stung like poison in her mouth every time she spoke them and were filled with so much animosity and fear, replayed over and over in his mind. They were words that Peeta was certain would forever be haunting his mind as they did the night before; never ceasing to let him think about anything else or get any sleep for that matter. It was like that one annoying song that one would not be able to get out of their head, making them suffer and wish that for just one moment, they had amnesia. It was these exact words that made Peeta hesitant about sitting in front of Dr. Cresta in the 'viewing room' next to Katniss' room.

 

The day before had been a complete disaster. Just when Peeta had thought that Katniss was about to open up about her suicide, she completely freaked out and told him to get out.

 

Why though?

 

She seemed fine and confident for the first half hour of their brief conversation. She seemed just as confident when she leaned in close to him, which caused the butterflies in his stomach to go into complete overdrive. His stomach turned into a lumpy knot as he forced himself to look away, and instead look at the deep scars that would stay forever imprinted on her wrist.

 

He didn't understand though. Everything was going fine until…

 

' _Until I looked at her scars,'_  he thought.

 

Was that it? Was Katniss Everdeen actually ashamed when he gently touched her skin? Did the confidence she had fade when the memory of that night came back to her mind? And what about those other scars she had? The ones that were faint enough to be missed if one were not looking close enough? Was she afraid that she had been caught? Or was it the fact that she new people were watching and listening to her and she just wasn't ready to talk about it?

 

"Peeta? Are you ready?" he heard Dr. Cresta say.

 

Peeta suddenly met her eyes with his own, "Y-Yea," he stuttered.

 

“Peeta have you listened to a word that I've said?" she asked.

 

Peeta began to open his mouth before he realized he had nothing to say. He knew that he could try to hide the fact that he had ignored her for the past ten minutes, but he decided against it. He slowly shook his head as she gave a loud sigh.

 

"Look, just get in there, talk to her, and come out," she said while she vaguely remembered the reason she has yet to settle down and have children.

 

"Wait, Dr. Cresta?" said Peeta as he stood up, "I think that maybe…maybe it would be a good idea if you don't listen to us."

 

Annie arched her eyebrow, "With all due respect Peeta, I make the decisions around here, not you."

 

Peeta sighed, "I know…but maybe another reason that she started freaking out is because she knows she's being watched and she knows that you're constantly listening to her."

 

"How am I supposed to help her if I don't know what she's saying?" she asked.

 

Peeta thought about it for a moment before an idea struck him, "How about you go ahead and listen. But if she starts getting hesitant, I'll scratch the back of my head and run my hand through my hair twice. It'll be like a signal or something. I can reassure her that her secret's safe with me. Then I'll just tell you everything afterwards."

 

“And how sure am I that you will tell me everything afterwards?”

 

"You can trust me Dr. Cresta," said Peeta.

 

Annie sighed.

 

"Fine," she said, "But you better not leave anything out. Now go get to work."

 

With that, Peeta practically ran out the door, but not before he ran into something, or someone for that matter. He looked up and saw green eyes staring down at his own. Peeta let out a chuckle as he scratched the back of his head nervously.

 

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" asked the amused Finnick Odair.

 

"N-Next door."

 

Finnick nodded his head, "With the suicidal beauty right?"

 

"Umm…yea."

 

A soft chuckle escaped from Finnick's lips as he stepped aside to let Peeta through

"Well then, let's not keep her waiting. Who knows, she might  _dying_  to tell you something," he said with gleam in his eye.

 

Peeta felt Finnick's eyes burn the back of his head before he heard the man walk into the other room and shut the door.

 

He didn't know why, but ever since they had their conversation about keeping secrets, Peeta had begun to feel a little uneasy around the man. He was sure that any other ordinary teenager would think Dr. Odair was ‘the shit.’ He was always very laid back and always tried to reasonably find the solution to any problem. If anything, Peeta should be praising the man for suggesting that he be the one to speak to Katniss! However, as much as Peeta wanted to, he couldn't.

 

He didn't know why, but something told Peeta that there was more to Finnick Odair than meets the eye. To Peeta, it seemed as if he wanted control over any situation. After all, he had over ruled Dr. Cresta plenty of times and insinuated that he knows everything about everybody. But maybe…maybe Peeta was just thinking too much. Maybe Dr. Odair was a good man and Peeta was being way too analytical.

 

Whatever the reason was, Peeta pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind as he opened the door to Katniss' room.

 

"Oh, you're here again," he heard the suicidal beauty say as he walked towards her bed.

 

Peeta arched his eyebrow in confusion when he noticed that she was currently lying on her stomach facing the wall, never once looking his way.

 

"H-How did you know it was me?" he asked as he got a chair and placed it next to the bed.

 

"I didn't."

 

She slowly lifted herself up to turn around and lay on her back, letting her arms spread out to her sides.

 

Peeta heard himself gasp as his eyes caught sight of her arms, which were covered in light purple bruises. A small band-aid adorned her shoulder. He felt the stare of her deadly eyes as he slowly looked up to meet them with his own.

 

"W-What happened?" he asked. He was sure that those bruises were definitely not there the day before. Was she trying to hurt herself under the careful watch of Dr. Cresta and Dr. Odair?

 

She raised her right arm in the air and softly touched the bruised areas of her skin. She gave a loud sigh as she suddenly tore the pink bad aid off her shoulder and revealed a small punctured wound. She quickly shook her hand to rid herself of the sticky band-aid and met Peeta's eyes once again.

 

"This is what happens when you completely go ape-shit on everyone."

 

Peeta looked at her arms again with a confused look on his face.

 

"These huge steroid infected guys charge at you to get you to calm down while this little bitch in a nurse's uniform stabs you with a needle."

 

Peeta nodded his head, understanding what she meant.

 

"I thought they were supposed to help you, not hurt you," he said.

 

She shrugged her shoulders.

 

"That's what everyone says," she whispered. Her voice was low, almost inaudible. It was so low that Peeta was sure neither Dr. Cresta nor Dr. Odair had heard her. But he certainly did.

 

"Not everyone's like that, you know?"

 

She tore her eyes away from his and shrugged her shoulders once again.

 

"Some people  _do_  want to help," he said.

 

"Yea?" she asked in a voice so low, anyone would have thought she was just mouthing words.

 

"Yea," he said as he noticed a small trail of tears running down her cheek. He scooted his chair closer to the bed and let a small smile appear on his cheeks.

 

She suddenly met his eyes with her own tearful eyes.

 

"Everyone wants what they can't have."

 

* * *

 

Annie and Finnick both watched the events in the next room unfold. Both were watching Peeta and Katniss as well as listening to their conversation intently. They briefly exchanged words and notes before there was a sudden knock on the door. A bright light suddenly flashed on their faces before Effie popped her head into the room.

 

"Annie, can you come outside for a minute?" she asked.

 

Annie looked over at Finnick. He nodded his head as if telling her that he had everything under control.

 

Annie stood up, grabbed her notes and followed Effie out the door.

 

"What is it Effie?" she asked the bleach blonde as she followed her down the hall.

 

"Mr. Cinna is here to see you."

 

Annie gasped as she quickened her pace and practically ran to her office.

 

There, sitting in the chair directly in front of her desk was a man in his mid thirties. He had light brown skin with light, almost golden eyes and short black hair. He gave Annie a gentle smile as she walked towards him and stretched out her hand.

 

"Hello, Mr. Cinna. I'm Dr. Annie Cresta," she said.

 

"It's very nice to meet you, please call me Cinna" he said as he shook her hand and took his seat.

 

"You're a little young to be in charge of a whole department don't you think?" asked Cinna after a moment of silence.

 

"Yea, I get that a lot," she said as she folded her hands on her desk, "But that's not what we're here to talk about."

 

He nodded his head, "I realized that when I got 30 missed calls from your receptionist."

 

Annie gave a small laugh, "Yes, Effie can be very persistent."

 

There was moment of silence in the room before Annie took out some papers from Katniss' file.

 

"Cinna," she began, "how long have you been Katniss' social worker?"

 

"Not very long," he said as he crossed his legs and folded his hands on his knee, "only for about a year. I'll never forget the first time I saw her. It was about eight or nine months ago. She looked so small, so scared. Her name was Posy at the time and she lived down in San Antonio."

 

"Cinna, why all the names? Why all the different locations?"

 

"Why not?" he asked.

 

Annie arched her eyebrows in confusion, "As far as my knowledge about how the system works, you don't need a name change and the kids usually stay in the same state, not scattered around the country."

 

"The new names are just a precaution Dr. Cresta. I assure you that it's just a part of how the system works. Why, I don't know very many foster children that decide to keep their real names."

 

"And the locations?"

 

"Another precaution," said Cinna with a wave of his hand, "we give Katniss, as well as other kids in her position, an opportunity to start over—get a fresh start."

 

"So you just  _give_  Katniss the option to start over and leave?"

 

"Yes," said Cinna with a cool look on his face, "We always do."

 

Annie looked down at the papers in her hands, all with different identities in different locations. None of this made sense. She had never heard of these sorts of "precautions" before. If such precautions did exist, she would know about it. She herself had been through this process before.

 

Not very many people know about Annie's childhood. It would not be hard to assume that Annie Cresta had the perfect childhood with two happy and perfect parents. People believed that she had everything handed to her on a silver platter, mostly because of her ability to always get her way.

 

However what they didn't know was that the picture perfect, dreamlike childhood of Annie Cresta was just that, a dream. Annie did not in fact grow up in a happy home nor did she have two loving parents. She hadn't even had one.

Annie had never met her father and had a strong feeling that her own mother didn’t even know who he was. Her earliest memory was filled with nothing but tears and pain. She was hungry and cold and went to look for the blanket that was given to her for her sixth birthday just three months before. She went in search of it in the living room but couldn't find it. Once she looked in every room, she decided to look for her mother to see if she could help her find it, and then possibly get something for her to eat. However when she stood in front of her mother's room, she noticed that the door was closed. Annie's mother had always warned her that she would be in very big trouble if she ever walked in when her door was closed. She didn't want to get in trouble for she knew too well what would happen. She still had the bruises from the last time to show for it.

 

But the hunger pains were too painful and the cold was unbearable for her. So she quietly and carefully reached for the doorknob and twisted it open. She peeked her head in through the door and was in shock of what she saw.

 

The only light in the room was coming from the crack in the doorway. But it was just enough to see Annie's mother, naked and on her knees in front of a very naked man, bobbing her head back and forth while the man pulled at her mothers brown curls. Her mother and the man, who Annie did not recognize, were making weird noises, almost as if they were yelling out in pain. She didn't want to witness it any longer, so she quickly turned her head to the right where, on her mother's dresser, were needles filled with remnants of a strange liquid.

 

Annie had seen these needles before and had been warned about going anywhere near them.

 

There was other stuff near the needles, but Annie couldn't see what it was. She tried to get a closer look so she carefully opened the door wider to let more light in the room.

 

"Shit!" she heard the man yell as Annie quickly turned toward her mother and the man who had now discovered her in the doorway.

 

"You have a fucking kid?" he yelled as he quickly pulled away from her mother.

 

The next thing Annie knew, she was locked in her room without her dinner and without her blanket, feeling hungry, cold, and sore. That's what she got for going places where she didn't belong.

 

A couple months later, a neighbor reported her mother after noticing how malnourished and bruised Annie was, and she was taken away to a foster home—the first of many. It wasn't until she turned seventeen that a woman named Mags Cresta finally adopted her. Mags had no children of her own, and became very fond of Annie. It was Mags who enabled Annie to go after what she wanted and inspired her to succeed. However, in the back of her mind, Annie always wondered what happened to her real mother and how things would have been if everything were different. Maybe, she told her self, if she  _was_  the best at everything, her real mother would come to love her and finally see that Annie was not a mistake that occurred while she was drugged up and being penetrated by an unknown man.

 

But of course no one knew about her past life, not Dr. Aurelius, not Effie, not even Finnick Odair.

 

This was how Annie knew that there was something strange going. Having been in the foster care system herself for about ten years, Annie knew that they wouldn't let Katniss move where ever she wanted or change her identity.

 

' _This isn't adding up,'_  she thought,  _'it doesn't make any sense.'_

 

"I'm sure you know that none of this makes any sense," said Annie.

 

"On the contrary," Cinna said, "it makes the perfect sense for someone in her situation."

 

"Situation?" asked Annie, "What kind of situation is Katniss in?"

 

At this, Cinna's cool demeanor seemed to falter, "Well, she's in foster care."

 

The only situation Katniss is in is the fact that she's in a psychiatric ward because she tried to kill herself. But what if there's more to it than that? What if there's an unknown reason, something much deeper than depression that had caused Katniss to do this. She wouldn't just give herself a new identity just because or kill herself just for the heck of it, unless…

 

"Cinna," began Annie as she suddenly felt the cogs turn in her head, "The only instance where anyone would change Katniss' identity is if they knew for a fact that Katniss was in danger."

 

"You don't know what you’re talking about—"

 

"On the contrary Cinna, I know very well what I'm talking about," said Annie as she cut him off, "you see, what you and your colleagues have failed to know was the fact that I myself was part of this very same system that claims that all they want to do is help Katniss by giving her a new name in a new house ten thousand miles away from her old one. Now you might think I'm just a typical doctor who doesn't know anything except for medicine. But trust me, I know a lot more than you think. This girl—this Bonnie, or Rory or whatever the fuck her name is, is in more trouble than you are willing to lead on."

 

Cinna sighed and rubbed his face with his hand, "Look," he said, lowering his voice, "when I first met Katniss, her name was Cecilia and she was in a rehabilitation center for teens in Kansas City."

 

"Rehabilitation center?"

 

"Yes, I was called in to transfer her anywhere that was far from there. She was my first teenager. Everyone else that I worked with was under the age of twelve, but not her. I originally though she would be easier to work with, but I was wrong…dead wrong. She wouldn't talk to anyone she wouldn't look at anyone. She was like a cold statue."

 

"That sounds just like her."

 

"I had heard about her from other colleagues. But I never looked too far into it. I always thought they were just rumors, gossip people like to start up. Finally, one day two men in dark suits came into my office and gave me specific instructions not to say a word about her or her circumstances. I wasn't allowed to say anything to her or anyone else anything about what they were about to tell me. If she said anything about being followed or in danger, I was to dismiss it as a young teenage fantasy and attribute it to the drugs the hospitals were giving her."

 

"So you are saying that they told you she's in some kind of danger and yet, they wanted to keep her completely ignorant of it?" asked Annie.

 

Cinna nodded his head, "I didn't think anything of it at first. But then two months later, I get a call again saying that Cecilia A.K.A Posy needed to be transferred again."

 

"Why, what happened?"

 

"The same thing that happened six times before."

 

Annie's eyes widened.

 

"Dr. Cresta," he said, "Katniss has been hospitalized seven different times. Why? I have no idea. But every time she's in a new location, she lives there in peace for a while. But then something sets her off and she tries to kill herself again."

 

Annie looked down at the papers in her hands. She finally realized why Katniss, and all the other identities she has been given, did not exist. This young girl was convinced that she was being followed and receiving a new identity would limit the chances of being found. But did it really?

 

"H-Have you ever thought that maybe she's just hallucinating? That this is all some big hallucination and that's why those two men told you to go along with it, for her sake?" asked Annie.

 

"The thought did cross my mind. That's why I started to contact the social workers that worked on her case before me."

 

"What did they tell you?"

 

"Nothing."

 

"Nothing?"

 

"They're all dead."

* * *

 

"Do you ever wonder if there's an afterlife?" asked Katniss.

 

Peeta looked up from picking at a hangnail on his finger. After about 20 minutes of silence, he was convinced they would have another quiet day where he tries to get her to talk and she just stares at the ceiling. Lucky for him she had different plans.

 

"What do you mean?" he asked.

 

Katniss sat up on her bed and leaned against the headboard. She looked down at her hands before she turned to look at Peeta.

 

"Do you think that maybe, there might be life after this life? You know, like a heaven and hell?"

 

"Well…yea. Don't you?" he asked.

 

She gave him a small smile before she looked down at her hands again.

 

"I don't know," she replied softly, "Sometimes I think that maybe this is hell. Like, this whole world we're living in is just one big clusterfuck of corruption, poverty, global warming, war…"

 

"…Suicide?"

 

Katniss looked up sadly and met Peeta's eyes.

 

"Yea," she said softly, "Suicide."

 

She looked down at her hands again.

 

Although Peeta couldn't fully see her face, he could faintly see a trail of tears coming from her eyes.

 

"Look Katniss, I'm sorry."

 

Katniss just shook her head, "No, don't be. I totally deserve it."

 

"But that's the thing; you don't deserve  _any_  of this."

 

"Yes I do."

 

"No you don't."

 

"Yes Peeta!" she exclaimed as she looked at him with tears engulfing her eyes, "I do! I'm a horrible person. All I do is move from place to place and make peoples lives miserable. Why? All because of a stupid promise that I sometimes wish I never made."

 

Peeta looked at her with confusion written all over his face, "Promise? What promise?"

 

His conversation with Dr. Odair resurfaced in his mind. Could this be what he was referring to? Is she really hiding something?

 

Katniss' eyes widened with the realization that she had said too much. Peeta looked down at her hands which were nervously scratching at the bed sheets. He looked up at her and noticed her looking at the tinted window in the room. Her lip began to quiver as her hands grabbed the bed sheet and started to wring them.

 

"Katniss?" he said as he noticed her breathing become irregular.

 

She was going to burst. Peeta knew that if he said anything else, she would completely freak out again. He didn't know what to say. So he did the only thing that came to his mind.

 

He scratched the back of his head and ran his hands through his hair twice as he looked at the tinted window in hopes that Dr. Cresta would turn the intercom in the viewing room off and just let him talk to her with out supervision.

 

"Katniss listen to me," he said as he stood up and went to sit next to her on her bed. He could feel Katniss slowly try to move away from him, all the while staring at the wall.

 

"No one's there right now. I promise."

 

Her breathing was still irregular as she let go of the bed sheet and started to draw on the bed with her finger.

 

"No one can hear us. It's only me and you. No one else."

 

He slowly began to reach for her hand.

 

She saw his hand slowly reach for hers from the corner of her eye. She suddenly flinched as she felt his finger gently touch her rough hand.

 

"Kat…you can trust me."

 

Katniss suddenly held her breath. She turned to look at his eyes and noticed how blue they actually were for the very first time. They were eyes that held so much care and so much passion, more than any eyes she had ever seen.

 

"W-What did you c-call me?" she quietly asked.

 

Peeta gave her a small smile, "Kat."

 

She looked down at her hands again.

 

"Do you trust me now?" he asked her as he slowly reached for her hand.

Katniss inhaled a deep breath as she felt a tingling sensation throughout her body. She looked at him again before she let him intertwine their fingers and nodded her head.

 

"W-What promise were you talking about?"

 

"Nothing," she replied quickly.

 

"Kat, you can tell me."

 

"No I can't," she said quickly.

 

Peeta wanted to know what she had meant, but knew better than to press the matter. His talk with Katniss had been going smooth until she got nervous and almost freaked out again. Luckily, he was able to prevent it but he also knew that if he made her the least bit uncomfortable, she would lash out again and Dr. Cresta would definitely never let him speak to her again.

 

She heaved a loud sigh as she turned to look at him. This time, Peeta noticed that her eyes were not as dead as they once were. Instead, they were replaced with a mixture of fear and solitude, a fear and solitude that he wanted so badly to cure.

 

"Katniss, you know that you can talk to me about anything?"

 

"Why do you care so much?" she asked softly.

 

"Why wouldn't I?"

 

"Because."

 

"Because what?"

 

"Because… _I'm nobody's child, I'm nobody's child._ " she began to sing softly.

 

" _Just like the flowers, I'm growing wild. I got no mummy's kisses; I got no daddy's smile."_

 

Peeta sat there mesmerized by her voice. How is it possible that someone as troubled and fragile as Katniss have the most beautiful voice he has ever heard?

 

" _Nobody wants me, I'm nobody's child."_

 

She let out another breath as she tried to stop the tears from falling.

 

"That's not true Katniss."

 

"Yes it is," she said softly, "no one would ever want someone like me."

 

' _I do.'_  thought Peeta.

 

"I'm a total fuck up that no one cares about."

 

"That's not true. I care about you."

 

"Just face it Peeta. I'm useless. I'm like a stupid black bird that's always picked on by all the beautiful doves. Nobody cares. All they care about is getting me out of here so they could move on to the next freak show."

 

She leaned her head back on the wall and closed her eyes.

 

Peeta didn't know what to do. How can he convince her that he actually  _does_  care?

 

' _I'm like a stupid black bird.'_

 

Her words stung him like a deadly wasp. How can he make her realize how beautiful she was? How can he convince her that she needed to be strong?

A small smile suddenly appeared on his face as an idea came to his mind. He cleared his voice and looked at her beautiful face.

 

" _Blackbird singing in the dead of night,"_

 

He began to sing,

 

" _Take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise."_

 

He looked at her as her eyes suddenly fluttered open. She turned to look at him as the trace of a faint smile slowly began appear.

 

" _Blackbird singing in the dead of night. Take these sunken eyes and learn to see."_

 

He offered her a small smile as the tears of sadness began to turn to tears of what he hoped were joy. He knew he sounded horrible, and he knew that he was probably making a fool of himself. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was making Katniss realize that she did matter and that he did care. He needed to show her that she was beautiful and that she needed to be strong.

 

" _All your life you were only waiting for this moment to be free."_

 

He saw her smile fade away. She turned away from him and closed her eyes. Did it not work? Did she still not trust him? He let out a frustrated sigh as he looked away from her.

 

" _Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly."_

 

His eyes widened as he heard her sing. He looked back at her. Their eyes suddenly met, and for the first time since Peeta had known her, she did something that he only saw her do in her dreams. She gave him a true genuine smile. He grinned at her while he sang after her.

 

" _Into the light of the dark black night."_

 

There was a comfortable silence. Their eyes never left each other’s, for in that small moment, a feeling of trust and passion entered both of their minds.

 

"Green," she said softly.

 

"What was that?" he asked while still mesmerized by the beauty of her voice.

 

"You asked me what my favorite color was. It's green."

 

"Is that so?" he asked as he saw a hint of a smile appear on her lips.

She nodded her head.

 

"And I love cheese," she said as soft giggles escaped her lips.

 

He suddenly looked away embarrassed as laughter escaped from both their mouths. 

 

"Me too," he said as he looked back at her, "You had me worried there for a second."

 

Katniss laughed a little louder this time. He decided that he really liked her laugh. It was sweet and angelic and every bit as beautiful as her. He couldn't explain it. But somehow, her laugh made him feel reassured…reassured that somehow, someway, everything was going to be all right.

 

However, nothing seemed to beat the feeling he got when he realized that her hand still held on tightly to his, never letting go of the feeling both of them got when their skin finally touched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music Notes:
> 
> Nobody's Child by Cy Coban
> 
> Blackbird- John Lennon and Paul McCartney


	13. Magic Cape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another one for all those lovely people who are still sticking around. Thank you for all the support!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise noted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan.

**Chapter 12: Magic Cape**

"Dead?"

"Yes, dead. That's why I was assigned to her."

Annie sat back in her chair and let go of the breath she didn't know she was holding in. This was way too much to take in. First, she learns that Katniss Everdeen didn’t exist, then she finds out that the girl has had seven different identities, and now she finds out that the girl is being followed.

This was all too unreal.

"This…" began Annie, "...this is just so surreal. It just can't be possible."

"But it's true."

Annie let out another loud sigh, "So you're saying that the reason Katniss, or Bristel, or Venia, or who ever the hell she is, has been hospitalized seven times because she's being followed. Cinna, do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?"

"I do. That's why when Cecilia turned into Posy; I started to do some research about her past. As you might know, nothing came up. It was like the people I work for just decided to make her a new person and completely erase the person she was before. Every time she tries to kill herself, they just send someone new to pick up the pieces by giving her a new name and shipping her off to whoever's willing to house an 'innocent girl'."

Annie closed Katniss’ folder and looked up at the man. Rage suddenly filled her eyes. How can people who are supposed to help a troubled girl just pack her up and move her like yesterdays trash? Weren't they supposed to help her? Weren't they supposed to make her feel better?

No wonder she wouldn't look at anyone. No wonder she wouldn't talk. No wonder she wouldn't trust people near her, much less doctors. She was just waiting for somebody to come in and take her someplace else where she could go away from whoever was after her. Everything suddenly made sense to Annie as she looked at the snow globe that still rested on her desk.

"Mr. Cinna, how can you guys just ship her off someplace else with out the proper treatment and care?" asked Annie with anger evident in her voice, "How can you guys tell her that she's going somewhere new where no one will get to her? How can you guys lie to her face and tell her that you guys care about her when you don't give a fuck about her!"

"Now wait just a minute!" exclaimed Cinna as he rose from his seat, "You think it's easy keeping tabs on all these foster kids? We have over 200,000 kids in the system, each with different problems and needs."

"That doesn't mean that you guys can just ship them off whenever you guys don't want to deal with them anymore!" yelled Annie as she too rose from her seat.

"Look, we have tried to do the best we can when it comes to kids like Katniss. You think its easy having to change her name and her location every time she tries to do something? You don't know what its like every time I get that phone call telling me that she's in the hospital again. You don't know what its like every time I come in to see her. If you think that it doesn't break my heart to see her in that bed, then you are wrong! I do care!"

Annie took a deep breath and met Cinna’s eyes with her own. She could tell that what he said was sincere. But that, in no way, made up for how the continually fail to help her.

"Look, Dr. Cresta," he said, "We try to come up with the best possible solution for Katniss and right now, giving her a new identity and changing her location seems like the best one."

"But its not," She said more softly, "One day, she's going to wake up and she's really going to kill her self. Tell me Cinna, whose fault will it be then? The doctors that failed to get her to open up, or the people who kept moving her around?"

Cinna did nothing but look down at his hands.

Annie let out a small sigh and sat down again, "Cinna, we could argue all day long but right now, we have to focus on Katniss. You said you did some research. What else did you find out?"

Cinna nodded his head as he took a seat once again, "It was hard, but I was able to find the people she stayed with since she was Bonnie in Phoenix."

"What did they tell you?"

Cinna shrugged his shoulders, "The same thing that was reported before. They told me that she was a nice quiet girl who was very smart and hardly ever got in trouble. But, that's not what troubles me."

Annie stared at Cinna, signaling him to continue.

"What troubles me is that they all told me the same thing about the events that happened before she tried to kill herself. She came home from school in a hurry and she got jumpy around people. She made sure all the curtains were closed by seven at night and she always looked around her when she was out in public. It was like paranoia started to take over her life. A week after the paranoia started, she tried to kill herself. Then, when the whole family came back from the hospital, they found that their house was broken into. But get this…nothing that belongs to the family was stolen. They're not even touched. But when they got to Katniss’ room, they found that the whole place had been completely trashed."

Annie’s eyes wanted to jump out of their sockets. This was the exact same story that Alyssum had told her a couple of days before. Why hadn't she thought anything of it?

Katniss’ story was puzzling and mysterious. However, the more Annie listened to Cinna’s story, the more Annie came to realize that Finnick was right, there was more to Katniss than meets the eye.

* * *

"What up man?" asked Gale as he lounged on the Mellark’c couch in their living room.

Peeta had just gotten home from one of best and most interesting events of his life. Katniss had finally opened up to him.

After he had sung so horribly to her, Peeta had received the answers to every single question he had ever asked her. They talked about movies, books, TV shows, favorite places, and their favorite time of day. Peeta was positive that by the end of the day, her eyes, which haunted him wherever he went, were no longer lifeless and dull. No. He was convinced that while she began to open up, her eyes were slowly coming back to life and they started to regain their natural silver color. Her hair, which seemed stringy, was slowly regaining its natural curls and her face seemed to glow along with the rest of her olive skin every time she laughed or smiled.

He was really disappointed when Dr. Cresta knocked on the door's small window to signal that time was up and that he had to leave. However, nothing could take away the big smile on his face after she asked if he'd be back the next day.

"So, how was work?" asked Gale as he grabbed the pillow that had fallen from under his encased leg.

Peeta leaned back on the couch and smiled, "Good… _very_ good."

"Yea? And why's that? Did you get laid by some sexy nurse or something?" asked Gale as he wiggled his eyebrow suggestively.

"Why do you always think the reason someone's happy is because they got laid?"

Gale just rolled his eyes.

"Where's Prim at anyway?" asked Peeta as he looked around the living room.

Gale shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. She was here a minute ago."

Peeta suddenly stood and looked around the room.

"Prim? Where are you?" asked Peeta as he looked into the kitchen, but saw no one there.

"Hmm, you're not in the kitchen…I wonder if you're upstairs." he said as he suddenly heard light footsteps run up the stairs.

A small smirk appeared on his face as he walked up the steps. While he was halfway up the stairs, he heard the sound of more running and the sound of a door shutting. When he finally reached the second level of his house, he looked left and walked towards his parent's bedroom.

"Now where on earth can my dear Primrose be?" he asked to no one in particular.

He stuck his head into his parents' room, knowing very well that she was not in there.

"She's not in mom and dad's room, and she's not in the bathroom either," he said after he stuck his head in the bathroom as well.

He walked towards her room and opened it to reveal an empty bedroom with toys all over the floor.

"She's not in her room."

He then walked over to the hall closet and cracked it open a bit. Just as he thought, there was no one there.

"And she's not in the closet either. Where on earth can she be?"

A smirk suddenly appeared on his lips as he heard small giggles coming from the inside of his room.

"Oh, no!" he yelled, "What am I going to do? How am I supposed to survive if I can't find her?" he exclaimed as he walked towards his closed bedroom door.

He opened the door and slowly walked into his room.

"I think I'm going to cry. My Primrose is lost forever and it's _all_ my fault! Where could she be?"

A small smirk appeared on his face as he fell back on his bed.

"And to think," he continued, "I was just about to tell her that I was going to take her ice skating on Sunday. Now I guess I'll just have to take Gale, even if I'll have to roll him around the ice."

"No! Take me instead!" he suddenly heard.

He smiled as he turned towards the closet that Prim had just run out of. She stopped dead in her tracks once she saw him lying on his bed with both hands resting under his head.

"Peeta!" she yelled as she crossed both arms over her small body.

"Gotcha," he said before she stomped over to his bed and jumped on top of him.

He groaned in pain as small giggles escaped her small lips.

"You think this is funny?" he asked as he suddenly stood and picked her up. He draped her over his shoulders and walked out of his room.

"Put me down!" she yelled.

He laughed as he heard the pleas coming from her mouth. He walked into her room where he carefully threw her on the bed and started to tickle her.

"P-Peeta!" she said as she gasped for breath.

Laughter filled the whole room as he continued to tickle her. Tears threatened to escape her small eyes as she begged for him to stop.

"Say that Peeta is the best brother in the world," he said as he found her weak spot around her waist.

The young girl shook her head as she tried to suppress the laughter coming out of her mouth.

"Then I guess I'm just going to have to keep on tickling you."

"P-Peeta!" she exclaimed in between laughter.

"Say it!" he yelled teasingly.

She shook her head once again as he kept on tickling her.

"C'mon, say it!"

Prim’s stomach suddenly began to hurt from all the laughter.

"F-Fine!" she exclaimed as she finally decided that she couldn't take the tickling any longer, "P-Peeta is…the b-best b-brother…in the w-world!"

"What was that?" he asked as he continued to tickle her, "I didn't hear that."

"I said, PEETA IS THE BEST BROTHER IN THE WORLD!"

"Alright, alright," he said once his hands finally left her aching stomach, "you don't have to brag about it."

Prim suddenly jumped on top of her brother once again making him fall back on her bed. Laughter filled the room as she sat on top of her brothers stomach.

"Prim I c-cant b-breathe!"

He suddenly rolled her off of his body and sat up before she could do anything else.

Giggles escaped her lips as he looked down at her. He loved her laugh. It was pure, sweet, and innocent.

"Just like Katniss," he mumbled.

"Who's Katniss?" he heard the young girl ask.

"Umm…" he mumbled as he scratched the back of his head nervously. He hadn't realized that he said that out loud.

"She's…a girl"

"Is she your girlfriend?"

Peeta almost choked on his own spit at the mention of the word girlfriend.

“How do you know what a girlfriend is?” he asked.

“Peeta I’m six! I know what a girlfriend is,” she said rolling her eyes, “Besides, all Gale does is cry on the couch after Madge tells him she doesn’t want to be his girlfriend.”

“First off, you’re way too young to be rolling your eyes at me. Second, I need to hear more about Gale crying,” laughed Peeta.

Prim giggled as she grabbed her stuffed goat, Lady, from the where it rested on top of her pillow.

“Sooooo,” she said once she snuggled up to her goat, “who is Katniss?”

"Umm…” began Peeta as he ran a hand through his hair, “s-she's a girl, who is a friend."

"Is she the blonde girl who wouldn't leave you alone?"

Peeta let a chuckle escape his lips at the mention of Delly. He suddenly remembered the very, _very_ short time that he went out with Delly Cartwright, the self proclaimed drama queen of Panem High. He never considered her to be his girlfriend, although if you asked her, they were on their way to becoming engaged. He never even thought of them as being in a relationship either. I-mean, who decides to get 'hitched' after one date…if you could even call it that.

He needed a date for his football banquet last year and he, being the procrastinator he was, waited until the last minute to ask someone. By the time the week of the banquet came, he found that almost every available, non idiotic girl was already taken.

He didn't really mind though. He figured that he could just go stag or skip it altogether. However, if it weren't for his supposed best friend Gale who made fun of his dateless male ego, he would have never asked Delly to go with him. He made a stupid bet with Gale in which he said that he would ask out the next girl who walked out the girl's bathroom, even if they were in the 'nerd and loser' hallway in school.

However, much to the dismay of Peeta and the amusement of Gale, Delly Cartwright just so happened to be the next girl to step out of that bathroom. Peeta had no choice but to ask her, since he was never one to back out of a bet.

He still remembered the squeals that never ceased to send shivers down his spine when he asked her. She immediately gave him a kiss on the cheek and ran to _'Go tell Madge’_. The week after the banquet, Delly would stop by his house unannounced and continuously buy him presents…not that he minded. After all, it's not everyday a teenager gets a new diamond encrusted Rolex watch to go with his new expensive iPhone 6.

"No, it's not her."

Prim gave a sigh of relief, "Good, because her voice reminds me of Cruela Devil."

Peeta let a small laugh escape his lips.

"So, who is she?"

"Who?"

"Katniss," she said in a sort of _'duh'_ tone.

"S-She's…just a friend."

"From where?"

"The hospital."

Prim arched her eyebrows, "She's not crazy is she?"

"Where would you get an idea like that?"

Prim shrugged her shoulders, "Gale always tells me how you work with crazy people that will attack me if I don't get him something to eat."

Peeta rolled his eyes, "Do me a favor—never listen to Gale. No 'crazy' person is going to get you. Remember, no one will ever hurt you as long as I'm around."

"I think you should be around more often."

"Why's that?"

Prim began to roll the sleeves from her pants up to her knees and revealed small cuts and a bruise that was slowly beginning to form.

"How did you get that?" asked her brother as he gently touched the skin around the bruise.

"I-I fell off the tree in the backyard."

He leaned down and placed a soft gentle kiss on the bruise.

"There is that better?"

Prim nodded her head.

"Now, you know that you're not supposed to be playing on that tree right?"

She nodded her head again, "I don't plan to climb that tree again. I don't want to get more purple circles on me anymore."

"Well, you're just going to have to be more careful."

"But it's not fair! You play football with Gale all the time and you don't get purple circles." she said as she crossed her arms around her chest.

Peeta gave her a small smirk, "Well, that's because you don't have my magic cape."

Prim scrunched her face in confusion, "What magic cape?"

"The one that protects me from everything. This cape is the reason I never get hurt."

"Can I see it?"

Peeta shook his head, "It's invisible."

A small frown appeared on her face.

"But you know what?"

Prim shook her head. Peeta lifted his hands in front of his neck and pretended to untie something. He then flung his arms around and pretended to take the cape off. Prim’s eyes lit up as he put the invisible cape around her and tied it around her neck.

"I'm going to let you borrow it for a while," he said.

Prim offered him a huge smile before she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Thank you Peeta," she whispered.

He gave her a soft kiss on her forehead, "You welcome, and anytime Gale threatens you when you don't give him food, just take his crutches away and hide them in my room. He'll never be able to find them"

She gave a small giggle before she sat back on her bed and looked into his eyes, "So who's Katniss?"

"I told you she's just a friend."

"Like Gale?"

"Y-Yea…almost like Gale."

"So, she's not your girlfriend?"

' _I wish.'_

"No, she's not my girlfriend."

"Is she going to go ice skating with us?"

Peeta nervously scratched the back of his neck. His sister sure had a lot of questions for a six-year-old.

"Umm…I don't know Prim."

"Why not?"

Peeta gave out a loud sigh, _'Yea, why not?'_

Maybe an outing would be a good a thing for Katniss. After all, she had finally opened up, the least Dr. Cresta can do is let her go out somewhere. Plus, he had been itching to see Katniss out of those hospital clothes. He could only imagine how beautiful she looked without her hospital uniform that consisted of, light green pants and an elbow-length sleeved shirt.

"I don't know, but I'll tell you what. I'll ask if she can come, but I can't promise you anything."

Prim nodded her head.

"But you know what I do know for sure?"

She shook her head.

"I want ice cream, what about you?"

"Before dinner?" she gasped.

He gave her another smirk, "I won't tell if you won't."

She nodded her head as she suddenly stood up, "Last one out is a rotten egg!"

He laughed as he ran after her down the stairs and out the door. He caught up to her and picked her up by the waist and spun her around.

He finally put her down and bent down to meet her eyelevel, "Are you ready for some ice cream?"

Prim nodded her head excitingly.

"Did I hear the words _ice_ and _cream_ together?" asked Gale as he limped out of the house and headed towards the car.

Peeta rolled his eyes, "Sure Gale, just get in."

He went to grab his keys from the house and locked the door. He then got into the car and began to drive away from the house with Gale sitting next to him and Emily in the backseat.

However, while the two siblings were running around the front yard and Gale was limping out of the house, no one seemed to notice the black four door Sedan parked right across the street from the house. No one oticed that after Peeta backed out of the driveway and began to drive down the street, the Sedan quickly started and followed them from a distance, always going unnoticed.


	14. The Perfect World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games or the film/novel Don't Say a Word. This story is for entertainment purposes only. I make no profit out of this and all of the characters, unless otherwise noted, belong to their respective owners, the great Suzanne Collins and Andrew Klavan

**Chapter 13: The Perfect World**

" _Daddy no! I don't wanna go!"_

" _You have to mija."_

" _But I don't wanna!"_

_The young girl ran back into her room, climbed on top of her bed, and laid face down on her pillow crying her grey eyes out. Her father ran in after her and scooped her up in his arms before he walked out of the room._

" _Put me down!" she yelled as tears were cascading down her soft round cheeks._

_The brown skinned man put her down in the living room of their small apartment. The girl was just about to run back to her room, but her father grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him. He bent down to meet her eyelevel and grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her from going anywhere._

" _Mira mija." he said in a stern voice, "I know you don't want to leave. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is take you away from here and from all of your friends, but I have no choice."_

" _But why?" she sobbed, "Why can't I stay here?"_

" _Mija, you can't. You can't just stay here all by yourself. You have to come with me."_

" _But WHY? Why can't I stay here?"_

" _Because you just CAN'T!" he yelled._

_The young girl did nothing but sob in front of her papa. She didn’t like making him mad but she didn’t know what else to do to make them stay._

_He gave a loud sigh as he murmured Spanish curses under his breath. He looked around the small apartment before his eyes landed on the black duffel bag and the small backpack by the door._

_He had to do this. He didn't want to, but he knew he had to, and fast. It was the only way to make sure that HE would never get to his daughter, his most valuable possession._

" _Lo siento mija," he said softly as he cupped his daughters face and wiped the tears away from her eyes with his thumb, "But we have to go now."_

_The girl gave a small sniff as she slowly nodded her head._

" _Pero mira," he whispered, "I promise you that one day we'll come back. Okay?"_

" _B-But what about mami?"_

_The man sighed._

" _W-What will she say when we don't visit her on Sunday's anymore?” the young girl asked._

" _Mami will be with us everywhere we go. I promise."_

" _B-But how?"_

_The man sighed again before he looked towards a small table against the wall. His eyes landed on a round snow globe that contained miniature versions of New York's landmarks. His lips curved up into a small smile as he reached for the snow globe that once belonged to his wife. He held it in his hands before he gently shook it in front of his daughter. As he watched the snow fall softly over the Statue of Liberty, the memory of the time his wife bought it suddenly entered his mind._

_It was exactly a week before his daughter was born and they were walking in Times Square. Their arms were linked together as they admired the city lights above them. They were talking about the plans they had after their precious baby was born. They had planned to move as far away from the city as possible because they didn't want to raise their child in a city environment. His wife was a bit hesitant to move away from her home. However, her husband had assured her that it would be better for the three of them. His wife though, was not thoroughly convinced since she argued that New York was 'The best city in the world'._

_He did not want to disappoint his wife. So they stopped by a small vendor on the side of the street. He told her to pick something from a table filled with souvenirs. After looking at all of them, his wife had finally decided on the round snow globe with the revolving subway train at the base. The man paid for it before they both walked away hand in hand and talked about how she wanted to give the souvenir to their daughter so that she would always know where her parents had come from._

_Needless to say, his wife never had the chance to give it to her daughter because three weeks after her birth and two days before they were moving away, she died. The man became distraught and overcome with the fear of raising his daughter on his own, especially with his line of work. He feared leaving her with random strangers in a place were he would know no one. Most of all, he was filled with remorse over his wife's sudden death and feared not being near her, even if she was six feet underground. So he decided to stay in New York and raise his daughter with the help of Wiress, his 60-year-old neighbor who never asked questions about his line of work._

" _Mami will always be with you," he whispered as he handed the snow globe to his daughter._

_The young girl took the snow globe from her father. A small smile appeared on her face as she gently shook it with her small hands. She had known that the snow globe belonged to her mother, but she never imagined that one day it would belong to her._

_Her father gave her a small kiss on her forehead before he stood up and walked towards the bags. He picked up the small Barbie backpack and walked towards his daughter. He knelt down in front of her, unzipped it, and held it open towards her. She gently placed the snow globe in her backpack, making sure to wrap it around some of her clothes to keep it from breaking._

_He then stood up, walked towards his own duffle bag and picked it up._

" _Estas lista?" he asked her._

_She nodded her head and followed him towards the door. She was about to walk out after him when she suddenly stopped._

" _Wait!" she yelled as she ran back into her room._

" _Mija, we can't keep doing this!" he yelled, "We have to go now."_

_She suddenly ran back into the living room with her precious doll that her father had given her. It was the doll that her father had told her to keep close to her at all times._

" _Here," he said as he grabbed her back pack and held it open to her, "Put her in here."_

_The young girl scrunched up her face in confusion, "But why? How can I show her off to all the other girls if she's in there?"_

_Her father shook his head, "Now's not a good time to show her off."_

" _But why?"_

" _Because the ride to our new home is far and we don't want to risk her getting lost now, do we?"_

_His daughter contemplated this before she shook her head. She put her doll in her backpack next to the snow globe. She then took the backpack from her father's hands and put it on her shoulders._

_She followed her father out of their apartment and out of the building. Once they were out, her father slowly looked up and down the street._

_Finally, he breathed out a sigh of relief and took her small hand in his._

" _Ok," he said, "let's go."_

_However, the ten-year-old and her father failed to notice that in the short minute it took for both of them to turn the corner, a black four door Sedan had quietly turned on and began to follow closely behind._

* * *

 

 

"So what are they going to do with her?" asked Finnick.

Annie ran her hand through her hair and sighed, "They're going to take her away again."

Finnick suddenly turned toward his friend.

"B-But they can't!"

Annie shrugged her shoulders, "They can, and they will."

The two friends turned to look at the window, which allowed them to look into Katniss’ room. She was currently sitting back on her bed playing with her snow globe while she listened to Cinna who sat in the chair next to her.

Annie sighed again as she thought back to the argument she had with Cinna the day before. Although she had tried her best to argue with him, they both decided that it would be best that Katniss be transferred elsewhere.

"Do we know where?" asked Finnick.

Annie shook her head, "No. He said it was completely confidential."

Finnick rolled his eyes as he leaned against the table.

"Well this is great," he said with sarcasm evident in his voice, "How are we supposed to help her now?"

Annie shrugged her shoulders as she saw Cinna get up from the chair and walk out of Katniss’ room. Annie walked out of the viewing room and met him in the hallway.

"What did she say?" asked Annie.

"Nothing, not that it surprises me."

"I'm telling you Cinna, this is a bad idea."

"Dr. Cresta," he began, "we have no other choice."

"How can helping her not be a choice?"

Cinna sighed, "We went over this already. Unless we want whoever is after her to get her, then she should stay. But since we don't, then it's best she leave."

Annie rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Now, I told her that we'll be here for her tomorrow morning," he said.

"But tomorrow's Sunday. Dr. Aurelius won't be back until Monday, how am I supposed to release her without his consent?"

"That's why they invented phones."

"But…"

"We could argue all day again Dr. Cresta but I have work to do. I'll be here around nine to pick her up,” he said before he walked away leaving Annie alone in the hallway.

In a fit of rage, Annie took the folder she held in her hands and threw it against the wall, letting the papers fall everywhere.

"E-Excuse me Dr. Cresta?" she heard someone say.

Annie looked towards the person who distracted her from venting out her anger and was met with Peeta’s confused eyes.

Annie blew some hair away from her face before she bent down to pick up some of the papers.

"What do you want Peeta?" she asked.

"I-I just wanted to talk to you about something," he said as he knelt down to help her.

"What about?"

"It's umm…it's about Katniss."

"What about her?"

"Katniss has umm…she has shown a lot of…improvement these last few days and…I was wondering if I could…you know…take her somewhere to…celebrate?"

Annie stopped organizing her papers and looked at Peeta with an arched eyebrow.

"You want to take her out?"

"Y-Yea," he stammered.

Annie sighed before she stood up, "This is a hospital Mr. Mellark, not a dating service."

"I-I know that, its just…its just that I think that she needs some time away from this place. You know? Maybe she'll open up more if you let her out of here, just for an afternoon," he said as he stood up as well.

"Look Peeta, as much as I think it might be a good idea to let her get some fresh air, the answer is no."

Peeta face fell.

"N-No? But why?"

"Because she's leaving."

Peeta’s eyes widened in shock.

"L-Leaving? But she can't be leaving," he said as she began to walk towards the viewing room.

"Yea, well social services doesn't think we're doing a good job so they're taking her away."

"But they can't!"

Annie suddenly turned to look at him.

"Look Peeta, I hate it just as much as you do. But let's not forget our jobs here, okay?"

"But I thought that we were supposed to help her? Not make her go away!" he exclaimed.

"That's what I said, but do you think they listen? Just go in there and talk to her some more. It might be the last time you do it," she said before she walked back into the viewing room.

Peeta stood there in utter shock. How could this be happening? How could they be taking Katniss…his Katniss away from him? It just wasn't fair! How can they take those big grey eyes and those pink, round lips away from him? This couldn't be happening. This wasn't right. They were supposed to help Katniss, not take her away.

He was supposed to help her open up about her suicide. He was supposed to be there when they finally release her from the hospital. He was supposed to be there when she went back to school. He was supposed to there when he introduced her to his friends and to Prim as his girlfriend. He was supposed to kiss her until there was no more air in either of their lungs. He was supposed to be the one that would hug her and promise to take care of her forever.

But not anymore. He wouldn't be able to do any of these things now. Why? Because the fucking idiots from social services think that they're not doing a good job in helping her.

It wasn't fair.

Peeta felt like screaming at the top of his lungs. But he couldn't. He needed to be strong. So he did what any other regular teenage guy would do. He brushed his feelings aside and walked into Katniss’ room.

However, as he was about to walk towards the door, he suddenly looked down and noticed that he was stepping on a small stack of papers that were stapled together. He picked them up and skimmed through them.

Bristel, age 14, Portland Oregon…Rory, age 15, Boston Massachusetts… Venia, age 16, San Diego California…what? Who were all these people?

Peeta didn't remember ever seeing any of these people on this floor.

' _Maybe they’re from another floor,'_ he thought before he folded the papers, stuffed them into his pocket, and walked towards Katniss’ room.

Once inside, he found Katniss laying on her stomach. Her feet were resting on her pillow as her head faced the tinted window. She wasn't looking at the window though. No. Instead, she was carefully watching snow fall over a small city in a snow globe that she held in her hands.

Confusion spread throughout Peeta’s face. Patients weren't allowed to have anything made of glass. However, he figured that it was probably acceptable since Dr. Cresta hadn't said anything about it.

He took a step closer to her. She hadn't heard him enter the room since she just laid there, mesmerized by the snowfall that covered the small city like a blanket. He walked a little closer to her. A small smile appeared on his face as he faintly heard her singing.

" _In between the cover of another perfect wonder and it's so white as snow,"_

She shook the snow globe once again as she gently touched the glass with her index finger.

_"Running through the field where all my tracks will be concealed and there's nowhere to go."_

He walked closer to her as he noticed her draw invisible circles on the glass while a soft sigh escaped her lips. The smile on his face grew bigger as he opened his mouth,

" _I said hey hey yeah oh yeah, tell my love now."_

Katniss jumped as she heard the voice. But it wasn't just any voice. No. It was _his_ voice. Peeta’s voice. The voice that she had grown so accustomed to hearing.

She looked up to meet her grey eyes with his deep blue ones. Her lips curved upward into a smile as he stepped closer to her.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he answered.

She sat up on the bed as he walked over to the chair next to her.

"How are you today?" he asked.

She looked down at the snow globe and shook it once again.

"I'm alright.,” she whispered.

He looked down at her snow globe and watched as it covered what appeared to be the Empire State Building.

"What's that you've got there?" he asked as he pointed to the globe in her hand.

She looked down and let out a small sigh.

"A perfect world" she said.

Peeta arched his eyebrow, "What do you mean by that?"

She looked back up at him and offered him a small smile.

"It's the perfect world," she repeated, "It's a place where you don't have to think or worry about anything. You never have to run or hide. You don’t have to worry about where you’re going to sleep that night or whether or not you’ll go to bed hungry.”

She looked back down at _'the perfect world'_ in her hands.

“People might think that living in a bubble is scary. It makes them feel trapped and alone. But what they don’t realize is that that bubble gives them protection from all the evil things in the world.”

She looked back at Peeta and met his soft stare.

"Imagine standing in the middle of this world and looking up at all the buildings. And then you look up at the sky and feel the snowflakes fall on your face. You can feel them melt but you don't care, because those snowflakes and those buildings…they can make you believe that just for one minute…you're free. You’re free in a beautiful place where nothing can harm you."

"Can I see it?" he asked.

She nodded her head and handed him the globe. He took it from her hands and gently shook it.

"Where did you get it from?" he asked as he played with the subway train at the base of the globe. He slowly began to spin it around with his finger.

"It was my mothers."

He looked up at her, "Yea?"

"Yea," she whispered.

She looked away from him to try to hide the emotions that threatened to spill from her eyes. But it was too late. Peeta had already seen them. He stared at her as she started to draw invisible figures with her finger on her bed.

"W-What happened to you parents?" he asked.

She suddenly looked at Peeta with an unreadable expression in her eyes. He looked down at her hands and noticed them scrunch up into tiny balls.

Uh-oh.

Had he gone too far? Had he suddenly opened a big can of worms that was never supposed to be open in the first place? Had he made her uncomfortable? Was she going to freak out on him again?

' _Great job Mellark!'_ he thought to himself, _'you just made her hate you again. What the fuck were you thinking asking her about her parents? She's not going to want to speak to you again. This is great; this is just fan-fucking-tastic!'_

"They're dead," he suddenly heard her say.

Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He met her eyes again and was surprised to find pain and sorrow instead of anger and fury.

"D-Dead?" he asked, unsure if he should be pressing the matter more. He placed the snow globe next to her hand on the bed and sat back on his chair.

She slowly nodded her head as she stared back at the tinted window, a clear sign that she didn't want to discuss it any further, and Peeta had no intention of making her uncomfortable.

An awkward silence fell in the room. Peeta nervously sat playing with his thumbs as he let out a loud sigh. If there was one thing he hated more than Gale talking while his mouth is stuffed with mashed potatoes, it was awkward silences.

"So," he began, "do…do you like ice skating?"

She looked back at him with confusion written on her face.

"You know," he said, "ice skating? You wear shoes with blades under them and you just slide around before you fall on your ass?"

"I know what it is," she said with no emotion in her voice.

"Oh…well, do you like it?"

She shrugged her shoulder, "I guess, I-mean I haven't done it since I was little."

"Would you like to try again?"

She gave him a blank stare.

' _Think fast Mellark.'_

"Primrose loves ice skating."

He noticed her face fall at the mention of Prim for a second before she went back to giving him a blank stare. What was up with that? Was she sad? Was she jealous? Maybe he just imagined it.

"She's been bugging me to take her for a while now. I was going to take her tomorrow and I was wondering if maybe you…you know…wanna go too?"

"W-Why would you want me to go?" she asked, "Wouldn't you want to be alone with Primrose?"

"I'm always alone with her. She's always there when I fall asleep and when I wake up, and I want you to go because I think you deserve to have a day of fun."

Katniss’ eyes widened in shock while her cheeks started to turn a light shade of pink.

"Umm…" she began nervously, "I-I'm sure it'll be fun…b-but umm, I don't think it's a good idea."

"Why?"

"B-Because I wouldn't want to be a burden on you."

"You won't."

"Well…then I don't want to interfere with your couple time."

"What couple time?"

She looked at him with confusion in her eyes, "Y-You know."

He scrunched up his face, "N-No I don't."

"Peeta, call me crazy, but I have no interest in watching you suck face with your girlfriend."

Peeta almost chocked on his spit at the mention of the word 'girlfriend'. Did she think Prim was his girlfriend? Is that why she was acting weird?

"Girlfriend? Eww, no!" he exclaimed, "You think Prim is my girlfriend?"

"Isn't she?"

Peeta let out a small laugh as he shook his head.

"Then who is she?" asked Katniss, clearly annoyed at the fact that he was laughing at her.

"She's my six-year-old sister.”

Katniss’ mouth made an 'O' shape as he continued to laugh. Her cheeks turned a darker shade of pink as she let out a small chuckle. She looked down at her hands. She felt so stupid and embarrassed for jumping to conclusions. It wasn’t like she was jealous or anything. She totally didn’t care if Peeta had a girlfriend or not. It wasn’t any of her business.

Suddenly, she felt his rough hands touch her own. He gave them a tight squeeze as she met his eyes once again.

“I uh…I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said as they looked into each other’s eyes.

"So, do you want to go?" he asked with hope in his voice, "Prim’s been dying to meet you. She wants to know the girl that's been stealing her awesomely cool older brother."

She gave him a small smile before she broke their stare and looked down at their hands that were still connected.

"I-I can't," she said as she pulled her hands away from his.

His face suddenly fell when her hands left his, "Why?"

She looked back at him and sighed, "I'm leaving tomorrow."

Peeta let out a loud sigh. Of course, how could he have forgotten?

"Right," he said, "Dr. Cresta told me. B-But maybe we could go before, you know?"

She shook her head, "No. I'm leaving in the morning."

"Oh. Do you know where?"

She shook her head again, "No, they don't usually tell me until later."

There was a moment of silence in the room.

"I-I'm gonna miss you Peeta," she suddenly said, "You were the only one that treated me like a normal person instead of a juvenile girl who tried to commit suicide."

A smile appeared on his handsome face as she suddenly intertwined their hands.

"I'm gonna miss you too."

There was a sudden knock on the window, which signaled that it was the end of their session. Peeta looked at the door and cursed Dr. Cresta for letting people who don't care about Katniss take her away.

He sighed as he looked back at her.

"I have to go," he said as he stood up.

She nodded her head as she stood up as well and followed him to the door, their hands still entwined.

They stopped in front of the door and stood facing each other.

“Katniss I…” began Peeta, “I really want to do something. But I’m afraid of what will happen if I do.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

He let go of her hands and pushed a curl behind her ear. He gently touched her face, cupping it with his hands.

“I’m afraid I’ll fall for you, more than I already am,” he whispered.

It was in that moment that Peeta decided that she never looked so beautiful. Her lips were nicely curved under her cute little nose. He felt like he could get lost in those big silver eyes and never want to be found.

“I’ll allow it,” she whispered as she also found herself drowning in his deep blue eyes.

“You will?” he asked.

“I will,” she responded before he slowly closed the gap between them and allowed their lips to touch.

Her lips were surprisingly soft and moist. He loved the feeling of his lips against her own and the tingling sensation that he felt when he realized that she was gently kissing him back.

Peeta couldn't believe what he was doing. He couldn't believe that he was kissing _the_ Katniss Everdeen, the same Katniss Everdeen whom he couldn’t get out of his mind. Her lips were slowly running a current through his body, making him feel things he’s only felt in fantasies of them rolling around in his bed.  He felt like he could stay there with her forever. However, a sudden knock on the window caused the two to jump and break apart.

Millions of thoughts were running through his head as he tried to catch his breath. He met her eyes and saw the same want and passion he had reflected in her own.

"I really don't want to say bye," he whispered once he finally remembered how to speak.

He stepped closer to her and grabbed both of her hands

"Me neither," she whispered as she rested her forehead on his chest.

"I can ask Dr. Cresta to give you my address so we can keep in touch."

She looked up at him with a small smile, "Yea…I'd like that."

"Goodbye Katniss," he said before he gave her one last kiss on her cheek

"B-Bye Peeta."

He gave her the famous Peeta Mellark smile as he took one last look at her and left the room.

She stood there, watching the door shut behind him. She closed her eyes for a minute before she suddenly opened them again. Small tears began to fall from her eyes as she let out a shaky breath.

" _There's a lot you don't know."_

She began to sing softly as the tears started to fall freely.

" _There's a lot you don't know. And there's a lot I can't tell. Would you think I'm crazy if you knew me that well?"_

By now, she had walked back towards her bed. She slowly sat down and stared at the wall that had been her only companion before Peeta arrived.

" _Cause there's a lot you don't know but you say you won't go and I'd like to believe you."_

She laid back on the bed and spread out her arms. Her eyes began to burn from the tears leaking out.

" _But I know there's no one left to save me."_  

* * *

"He's taking her tomorrow."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes, I just saw him get in his car with some paper work. It looked really important from what I could see."

"I'll get my men right on it."

"What about the boy?"

A dark laugh suddenly filled the earpiece.

"Don't worry about him. I'll deal with him myself. Besides, I think its time I pay Mr. Mellark a little visit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song Credits:
> 
> Snow (Hey oh)- The Red Hot Chili Peppers 
> 
> Save Me- The Pierces 
> 
> P.S. The idea of the "Perfect World" comes from the novel, The Lovely Bones. Give it a read when you get the chance. It's absolutely beautiful.


	15. Unfavorable Odds

**Chapter 14: Unfavorable Odds**

 

Sunday is the day that is usually known as the day of rest. It’s a day where one can run the errands they are unable to do during the busy workweek. It is a day when people can sleep in and recover from their massive hangovers from the night before. It’s a day when lunch or dinner with the family is at the top of everybody's list— a day when it is perfectly acceptable for one to lounge in bed all day for no reason at all.

 

However, on this particular Sunday morning, Annie Cresta was doing anything but relaxing. She was currently pacing back and forth in her office, contemplating whether releasing Katniss was the best thing to do. Cinna was due to arrive any minute to take her away. She had tried to get in contact with Dr. Aurelius last night and early morning, but had failed miserably. Now, all there was for her to do was wait as the minutes ticked away on the clock above her desk. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't even notice when Finnick walked into her office until she literally bumped into him.

 

"Finnick!" she yelled as she rubbed her arm.

 

"Sorry Annie," he said, "you should really watch where you're going."

 

Annie rolled her eyes before she went to take her seat behind her desk.

 

"What do you want Finnick?" she asked.

 

"I just wanted to see how you were holding up," he said as he sat in the chair in front of her.

 

Annie let out another sigh, "Alright I guess. I-mean there's nothing I can do anymore. I've called Dr. Aurelius so many times that I've completely filled up his voice mail box."

 

"Don't worry Annie," he said, "I'm sure everything's going to turn out fine."

 

"I hope so."

 

“What are you going to do with Peeta? I-mean I don't know about you, but I would hate it if I suddenly went back to janitor duty after I was the only reason why Katniss started to speak.”

 

"I gave him the day off for now. Why bother having him hang around here when Katniss is leaving, you know? I don’t know, maybe I’ll just sign his papers so he could leave. I-mean what else can he do here? Katniss was the only reason he had to come. But now that she's leaving, I see no use in keeping him around."

 

"I guess you're right."

 

There was a silence that filled the room. Finnick began to fill the silence by tapping his fingers on the armchair and offering Annie a smile. It wasn’t just any smile though. It was the smile he specifically used when he wanted something. Annie had seen him use it plenty of times when he was trying to get into some unsuspecting girls pants.

 

"So," said Annie as she looked at her friend, "what else did you want?"

 

Finnick cocked an eyebrow, "What do you mean, what else do I want?"

 

Annie rolled her eyes.

 

"Don't look at me like that Finn. I've known you too long to know that you just didn't come in here to ask about our former janitor."

 

Finnick put his hands up in a surrendering gesture, "Ok, you caught me. I actually came in here to ask you about Effie."

 

“What about her?”

 

“Oh you know,” said Finnick with a shrug of his shoulders, “the usual things—where she’s from, what she likes. That sort of thing.”

 

Annie looked at her friend with confusion on her face.

 

“Why does that even matter?” asked Annie.

 

“I was just doing some research before I have a particular conversation with her” said Finnick with a mischievous glint in his eye.

 

“Finnick, how many times have I told you that this is a hospital—my place of _work_? It’s not a dating service! Even if it were, what about your girlfriend?”

 

“We’re not technically together at the moment.”

 

“At the moment? What does that even mean?” exclaimed Annie before she waved her hand dismissively, “you know what? I don't even want to know. But how can you even think of anything like that at a moment like this?”

 

Finnick smirked and leaned forward in his chair to respond before a ringing was heard. He took out his phone from his pocket and gave a small sigh.

 

"Hold that thought,” he said before he stood up, “I'll be back.”

 

Annie rolled her eyes as he left the room.

 

Minutes seemed to pass as Annie sat at her desk, drumming her fingers over her desktop. She looked at the clock on her computer monitor and noticed that it was 10:30.

 

' _Hmm,’_ she thought, _'that's odd, Cinna should have been here by now.'_

 

Once again, she thought back to the argument she had with him. How could he be so dense to believe that Katniss would do better somewhere else? What if it didn't work? What if instead of helping her, they were just harming her? What if she ends up in the hospital again? What if she actually succeeds in killing herself?

 

' _This is an outrage!'_

 

It's not her fault that Katniss couldn't open up! It's not her fault that someone was following the poor girl! As Annie sat there in her office, she began to compile a list of people she could blame.

 

She blamed Katniss’ foster mom for not taking the time to actually get to know the girl. She blamed Dr. Aurelius for giving her a patient like Katniss. She blamed Finnick for not wanting to talk to Katniss like she had asked him. She blamed Effie for always giving her terrible news. She blamed Peeta for not getting her talk to doctors.

 

But most of all, she blamed herself for not getting her to open up and for not helping her throughout her stay at the hospital.

 

Yes, although it was much, _much_ easier to blame others, Annie had realized that she had no one to blame but herself. Maybe, if she would have tried just a bit harder, then Katniss wouldn't have to leave and she wouldn't feel as guilty as she did now.

 

Annie was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she almost jumped out of her seat when Effie ran into the room.

 

"Effie," she said as she noticed the flustered expression on the receptionists face, "w-what's wrong?"

 

"W-Where's Finnick?" asked Effie.

 

"He’s taking a call. Why? What's wrong?" asked Annie, sensing the anxiety in Effie’s voice.

 

"I just received some information that I think you guys should both know."

 

"What’s going on?" asked Annie.

 

"I-I just got off the phone with…"

 

"Sorry about that Annie, it was my girlfriend. She just wanted to know when I was going home," said Finnick as he walked back into the office.

 

“I thought she wasn’t your girlfriend?” asked Annie.

 

“Semantics,” said Finnick with a wave of his hand he finally noticed that Effie was also in the room, struggling to catch her breath.

 

"Hey Effie," he said, "I was just asking about you."

 

"Can't it wait?" asked Annie, "She was just about to tell me something important."

 

"Oh," said Finnick as he sat in one of the chairs, "well by all means, go ahead."

 

"As I was saying," said Effie, "I just got off the phone with Octavia, Cinna’s assistant."

 

"What did she say?" asked Annie.

 

"Sh-she said that Cinna was found dead in his hotel room this morning."

 

"Dead?" gasped Annie.

 

Effie nodded her head, "Yes, dead!"

 

"Oh my god!" said Annie as she brought her hand to cover her mouth.

 

This just couldn't be happening. How could the man she had just seen the day before be dead?

 

"Are you sure?" asked Annie, “You’re sure it was Cinna? Cinna Parker?”

 

“How many Cinna’s do you know Annie?” said Effie as she began to nervously wring her hands, “Octavia said that she woke up and was getting everything ready to come get Katniss. She noticed that they had 10 minutes till they were scheduled to be here and he still hadn’t left his room. She tried knocking but she never got an answer so she had to call the front desk and when they broke in, they found him face down in the bathtub. The cops said that it looked like someone broke in last night and hit him in the back of his head while he was bending down to turn the water off for his bath.

 

“They could’ve given him a fatal blow to the head,” said Annie, “and even if the hit didn’t kill him, it was enough to knock him out.”

 

“Exactly,” said Effie, “ they’re saying he must have fell in the bath tub and drowned with all the water in the tub.”

 

Annie looked at Finnick and noticed that he was staring off into an invisible point on the floor. There was no emotion evident on his face. It was almost as if he seemed unfazed by the news they just heard.

 

He must have felt her eyes on him because he suddenly looked up and met his eyes with hers.

 

Instead of seeing his calm and endearing green eyes, she was shocked when he found them cold and icy. It was as if they became darker with intensity and anger.

 

"This is bullshit," he finally said as he ripped his eyes away from her and directed his harsh glare towards Effie, "How can he be dead?"

 

Effie shrugged her shoulders as she tried to pry her eyes away from his cold stare,

 

"I-I don't know,” she said.

 

He sighed as he looked back at Annie.

 

"Well…what the fuck are we going to do now?" he asked as he tried to contain the anger in his voice.

 

Annie sighed before she looked at the two adults in the room, "I-I…I honestly don't know."

* * *

 

"C'mon Gale!" yelled Peeta from the bottom of the stairway, "We have to get to the rink early if we want to beat the crowd!"

 

His dark haired friend slowly limped down the stairs, "hey, why don't _you_ try going down the stairs with a cast on your leg?"

 

Peeta just rolled his eyes as Gale finally made it down the stairs and limped towards the living room with his crutches under each arm.

 

"You know," said Peeta as he walked after his friend, "you're lucky that I actually let you in my house. Most people would just laugh at your stupidity and not even acknowledge you _or_ your broken leg."

 

"Well it's not my fault that I fell down the stairs!"

 

"Yea, just like it wasn't your fault that Madge’s dad caught you guys fucking around and that's why you had to run out of her house before he could catch you guys again."

 

"It's not my fault she can't resist this," said Gale with a cocky smile as he began to flex his arms.

 

"Right," said Peeta with another roll of his eyes.

 

"Hey at least I'm getting some instead of working with psychotic people! I'm sorry that you're miserable while I'm getting my action."

 

Peeta stopped to think for a moment and inwardly smirked at how untrue Gale’s statement was. He wasn't miserable. He hadn't been miserable since Katniss happened.

 

A small smile appeared on his lips as he suddenly remembered the soft kiss he shared with her the day before. He remembered her round, moist lips and the feel of her small hands against his rough ones. He could still feel the tingling sensation he felt when Katniss kissed him back. He couldn't believe that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her.

 

However, as much as Peeta wanted to be with her, he knew that it would never happen, not as long as she was leaving. He gave a loud sigh as he realized how much he's going to miss her. He was going to miss her petite body and her silver eyes. He was going to miss her long, wavy hair and the beautiful smile she would give him when he said something funny—mostly at his own expense. However, what he was going to miss the most about her was her soft angelic singing voice that filled his soul with something akin to love. He didn’t know for sure, but he swore that when she sang, even the birds would stop to listen. It was undeniable. He was a goner.

 

Yes. Peeta Mellark, Panem High's Football captain and Fresno Hospital's resident janitor was going to miss Katniss Everdeen, the suicidal girl. He was going to miss her so much that last night, before he went to bed, he added something to the list of things he _really_ wanted to do. There, on his list, right above going sky diving, he added _finding Katniss Everdeen_.

 

"Peeta?" he heard Gale say as he snapped back to reality.

 

Peeta turned to look at his friend.

 

"What?" he asked.

 

"Are you ok?"

 

"Umm…yea," he said as he scratched the back of his neck nervously, "I just kind of zoned out for a bit."

 

"Yea, you seemed to be doing that a lot lately. What are they feeding you at that hospital?"

 

Peeta rolled his eyes, "Where's Prim at?"

 

"I don't know. I haven't seen her all morning."

 

"Gale, I told you to wake her up for me!"

 

"Yeah, well you also told me to hurry my ass up and change. I couldn't do both with a cast on my leg! So I figured that Prim was smart enough to wake herself up," he said as elevated his foot on a pillow and laid back on the couch.

 

"Gale, I'm going to kill you!" exclaimed Peeta as he ran up the stairs.

 

He walked toward Prim’s room and knocked on the door twice.

 

"Prim, time to get up!" he yelled.

 

However, he received no response from the other side.

 

He knocked again, "Prim, if you want to go ice-skating you better get up now. You know there’s always a big crowd on Sunday’s!"

 

Still, he got nothing. Peeta sighed as he knocked harder this time.

 

"Primrose, if you don't get out here right now, I'm leaving with out you!"

 

He was once again met with silence. Frustrated, Peeta banged on the door before he opened it.

 

"Prim get u-up…" he stopped in mid sentence and looked around.

 

There was no one in the room. The sheets were thrown back giving the impression that she had just gotten out of bed. The clothes that Peeta had laid out for her last night were also gone along with her boots and her skates.

 

That was odd. He could have sworn he hadn’t seen, nor heard her all morning. He rolled his eyes and stepped out into the hall.

 

"Prim! Where are you?" he yelled as he looked in the hall closet as well as his parent's room and the bathroom.

 

"Prim, we don't have time for this!" he yelled again as he opened his bedroom door only to find it exactly as he had left it. He walked over to his closet, but found nothing there.

 

He sighed as he walked out into the hall and down the stairs.

 

"Prim c'mon we have to go! It's not time to play!" he yelled as he walked into the kitchen and found it vacant. He walked out of the kitchen and into the living room where he found Gale in the same place he had left him before.

 

"Gale," he said, "have you seen her come down here?"

 

Gale shook his head, "no, I told you I haven't seen her all morning."

 

"That's weird, she wasn't upstairs."

 

"Maybe she's in the basement or something."

 

Peeta shook his head, "no she's afraid of going down there alone."

 

Gale shrugged his shoulders, "well, she's a big girl now. Maybe she grew out of it and found another hiding spot."

 

With a sigh, Peeta headed back to the small hallway that led to their backyard. Once he reached the door leading to the basement, he opened it and made sure to flick the light on first.

 

"Prim?" he said as he slowly walked down the steps, "Are you here?"

 

He reached the bottom on the steps and looked around. He found nothing but stacked boxes upon boxes next to the washer and dryer.

 

He groaned in frustration as he ran back up the stairs.

 

"She's not there," he told Gale as he walked back into the living room.

 

"That's weird," said Gale, "maybe you didn't look hard enough?"

 

Peeta groaned again as he ran up the stairs.

 

"Prim!" he yelled, "This isn't funny anymore!"

 

He looked in every room again only to find no one there. He walked down the steps once again but stopped when he was halfway down.

 

"Alright, I give up!" he yelled to no one in particular, "Come out now! You win! I can't find you!"

 

He waited to hear her familiar laugh signaling that whatever game they were playing was over. However it never came.

 

“Prim if you’re not out here by the count of 10 we’re not going! This isn’t a game!” he yelled again.

 

“One!” he began as he took the steps down to the first floor again, “two! Three! Four!”

 

With every number he yelled out, he took a step down.

 

“Five!”

 

 

“Six!”

 

He swore he was going to punish her for this.

 

“Seven!”

 

He couldn’t believe she thought giving her older brother a heart attack—after he’s taking her to her favorite activity—was funny.

 

“Eight!”

 

Suddenly, he looked down towards the front door and noticed something on the floor that he hadn't noticed before.

 

“N-nine…” he trailed off as he moved closer to the door to examine what he found.

 

There, lying on the floor near the door was Lady, Prim’s stuffed goat, the one that she wouldn't go anywhere without.

 

“How did you get down here? _”_ he asked himself.

 

He tried to look for any other sign of Prim before he looked towards the door and noticed a small crack between the door and the frame, almost as if it was opened before. His eyes threatened to jump out of their sockets as he suddenly looked up and noticed that the chain connecting the sliding lock to the door was snapped in half. He heard himself gasp as he suddenly realized that someone had broken into his house. He quickly stood up, yanked the door open and ran outside.

 

"Oh my god! Prim!" he yelled as he looked up and down the street.

 

However there was not a soul in sight. There were no cars parked on the street, except his own. There was no sign of life as he ran down the street yelling her name as if he expected her to just jump out from behind a tree. He didn't know where he was going. He couldn't see anything. His vision was blurred with tears that were falling freely from his eyes. His breath was getting shaky now. He felt like his heart was going to jump out from his chest any minute. His head was pounding as he ran in the middle of the street and looked back forth yelling for his lost sister.

 

"Prim!"

 

He made it down two blocks before he stopped to catch his breath. No! This couldn't be happening. Not to him or to Prim. How could someone just walk in un-noticed and take her from her bed? How can they take her away right under his nose? Why did he not check on her during the night like his parents usually did? Why didn't he double-check the locks last night? Why? WHY?

 

"Prim!" he yelled again as he ran back towards his house.

 

He stopped in the middle of the yard and looked around again. He was about to yell again when he suddenly heard a ringing noise coming from an inside pocket in his jacket. He reached down and took out a sleek phone—sleek enough that he didn’t even notice that he was carrying it around with him. Peeta swore he had never seen this phone before in his life. He looked at the caller ID but found that the number was restricted. He pushed on the answer button and spoke into the speaker.

 

"H-Hello?" he said with a shaky voice.

 

"What's your worse fear Peeta?" asked a sharp, chilly voice.

 

"Who is this?"

 

"We have Primrose."

 

Peeta took in a shaky breath, "what the fuck did you bastards do with her?"

 

"Now don't you worry your little heart Peeta. Prim is fine. She's quite comfortable actually, although she was crying about dropping Lady for a while. But other than that she's just peachy."

 

"I don't believe you!"

 

"Fine, don't."

 

"Let me talk to her."

 

"I don't think so."

 

"Please!" yelled Peeta as tears began to spill out of his eyes.

 

The voice sighed, "Fine, but after this you shut up and listen, got it?"

 

Peeta nodded his head even though he knew the speaker wasn’t able to see him.

 

"Peeta?" he heard the familiar small, meek voice on the other line.

 

"Prim!" he exclaimed, “Where are you? Are you ok?”

 

"Peeta, I wanna go home! Why can't I go home?" she cried from the other end of the phone.

 

"You will! I promise I'll go and get you alright? I'm not gonna let any of those bastards hurt you."

 

"That's enough Mr. Mellark," he heard the voice say again.

 

"No, please! What are you going to do with her?"

 

"I've already let you talk Mr. Mellark. If you want your Primrose to be kept safe, then I suggest you shut up and listen. Got it?"

 

Peeta once again nodded his head as he went to sit on his front steps, preventing him from collapsing to the ground in agony.

 

"Good. Now, I'm aware that you've become a rather close acquaintance with a certain Katniss Everdeen. Or should I say Bonnie, Cecelia or Posy? I can’t really keep up these days.”

 

Bonnie? Posy? Why did all these names sound so familiar?

 

"I don’t understand."

 

"Oh, I'm sorry. She hasn't told you yet, has she?" the voice let out a dark laugh that sent shivers up Peeta’s spine.

 

"W-What are you talking about?" asked Peeta. He failed to see how Katniss could have anything to do with the disappearance of his sister.

 

"To put it simply, Katniss Everdeen is not who you think she is."

 

"But, what does she have to do with Prim?"

 

"Just about everything,” continued the voice, “you see, Ms. Everdeen has something that I want. It is a six digit number that's locked away inside her troubled mind. All you have to do is get that number for me. When you do, Prim can go home."

 

"T-That's it?"

 

"Yes, it's that simple."

 

"B-But she's supposed to be leaving today."

 

"Don't worry about that. Ms. Everdeen’s trip is being temporarily postponed. So, do we have a deal?"

 

Peeta let out a shaky breath. If he didn't do this then Prim would be gone forever, not to mention that his parents would never be able to look him in the eyes again. If he didn't do this, then he would never be able to live with himself. Prim was the only person in this world that mattered more than anything else. He had to do this, because if he didn't, then he would have nothing more to live for.

 

"Deal," he said into the mouthpiece.

 

"Perfect! Now here are the rules," said the dark voice, "rule number one, don't. Say. A word. If you do, you can say good-bye to Prim. Rule number two; I make the demands, not you. That means no asking questions and no speaking unless you are told to. Lastly, rule number three, always answer the phone. Understood?"

 

Peeta let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. He knew he had to do this. In order to save Prim before it was too late.

 

“I asked you a question,” said the voice.

 

"Yes."

 

"Good. Now, you have exactly 96 hours to get that number for me. I suggest you start now."

 

"W-What if I can't get it by then? Y-You're not gonna kill her are you?"

 

The voice laughed again, "Now what ever gave you that idea?"

 

Peeta let out a sigh of relief but was quickly cut off when he heard the voice laugh again.

 

"That would be such a waste. I have some friends that would love to have Prim around for their _special_ needs."

 

"I swear if you touch her, I'll…"

 

"You'll what? Hit me in the head with a football?" he laughed again, "You're already wasting time by threatening me. Now go inside and make sure your friend doesn't break his other leg by falling off the couch."

 

Peeta gasped as he ran inside towards the living room. He felt his eyes widen even more when he saw Gale struggling to stay on the couch while reaching for the remote. He quickly went over and helped Gale stay on the couch before he stood up and looked around.

 

"That's right," said the voice, "I can see you and I can hear you. Wherever you go, you will be watched. So I suggest that you be smart and do exactly what I tell you to do. Remember you have 96 hours left.”

 

Peeta nodded his head, now fully aware that he was being watched.

 

"Good, now go and hurry. We don't want young Primrose to miss her ice-skating trip, right?"

 

“No,” said Peeta through gritted teeth.

 

“Now that’s the attitude I like,” said the voice with an icy laugh.

 

Peeta was about to hang up before he heard the voice call to him again.

 

“Oh, and Mr. Mellark?” he heard the voice say, “may the odds be ever in your favor.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk to me on tumblr :)

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that I am not intending to glamorize suicide or make a light note of it in any way. If you or someone you know has had thoughts of suicide, please call the NATIONAL SUICIDE AWARENESS HOTLINE 1-800-273-8255.


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